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9 - Transfer pricing disputes in Australia

from Part III - Asia Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2014

By
Richard Vann
Edited by
Eduardo Baistrocchi  and
Ian Roxan
Eduardo Baistrocchi
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Ian Roxan
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Summary

Australia has a relatively long history in adopting and applying transfer pricing rules. Australia introduced a transfer pricing rule early on and there were some lengthy tribunal decisions in the area in the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, Australia has devoted significant resources to transfer pricing issues, including at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) level and in domestic development of administrative guidance and enforcement by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Considerable controversy has attended this activity and led to a number of disputes and cases which have reached the public arena. The ATO has largely been unsuccessful on substantive transfer pricing issues in litigation (which is likely to lead to law changes) but successful in matters of procedure (leading to settlement of disputes after taxpayers lost the procedural contest). In addition the ATO has a large advanced pricing arrangements (APAs) programme and is actively involved in the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) on transfer pricing matters but otherwise does not seem to have a specially developed dispute resolution procedure for transfer pricing.

Type
Chapter
Information
Resolving Transfer Pricing Disputes
A Global Analysis
 , pp. 359 - 414
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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