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LEGAL SERVICES
Tax

Transfer Pricing

Our Irish and Luxembourg tax teams can provide pragmatic and robust transfer pricing solutions for alternative investment funds and multinational enterprises.

The Maples Group offers transfer pricing solutions in a wide spectrum of industries. We are experienced with the continued growth and complexity of international structures and the increasingly onerous transfer pricing requirements in today’s global landscape. We are able to focus and manage your transfer pricing risk by providing efficient solutions that are tailor-made to your specific business and investment operations.

Overview

Now more than ever, multi-national enterprises and investment groups must navigate an ever increasing amount of complexity. Transfer pricing regulations and compliance requirements are continually expanding along with increased enforcement activities by tax authorities around the world. As a result, transfer pricing has become a central focus of risk management applying to all areas of cross-border activities.

In addition, transfer pricing continues to evolve at the OECD, EU and local levels. We can provide guidance on managing your transfer pricing risks via a coordinated approach to all of these levels and improve the robustness of your transfer pricing documentation.

Luxembourg Requirements

Luxembourg has officially adapted the OECD’s ‘arm’s length principle’ into its tax laws by requiring that all transactions between associated enterprises act in line with this principle.

Additionally, the Luxembourg tax authorities introduced specific documentation requirements for companies performing intra-group financing activities with a specific focus on the equity at risk, the interest rate to be applied and the margin to be retained in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg tax authorities are quite attentive on verifying that these transfer pricing documentation requirements are duly fulfilled with the introduction of specific elements in the corporate tax returns. It is worth highlighting that the European Commission has launched several State Aid cases involving Luxembourg with a sharp focus on the correct application of OECD Transfer Pricing principles. Accordingly, an essential component in best practice Luxembourg tax planning and structuring should include pragmatic compliance with OECDbased transfer pricing documentation.

Our Luxembourg tax team can provide this expertise, particularly regarding multi-national groups with Luxembourg holding entities with debt financing, cross-border financing activities and alternative investment fund structures.

Ireland: A Growing Component

Ireland’s transfer pricing legislation also applies the arm’s length principle. In general, this means that transactions between related parties must be priced as if they were carried out between unrelated parties. Our Irish tax team has a wide scope of experience and expertise in providing both multi-national and alternative fund client groups with practical transfer pricing solutions to fulfil these Irish documentation obligations.

Solutions

Our Irish and Luxembourg tax teams notably can provide the following solutions to manage your tax and transfer pricing risk including:

  • An international financial institution in Irish Commercial Court proceedings regarding the tax treatment of Irish dividend withholding tax.  This was a widely-reported action which resulted in a successful outcome for our client.
  • Companies and insurance companies with regard to protecting against potential future tax risk related to a transaction.  This includes both ‘warranty and indemnity’ insurance and specific tax risk insurance.
  • An international investment firm with regard to the denial of a tax refund by the German tax authorities to their Irish company in which we utilised European law to successfully obtain the full refund.
  • Several investment funds in a tax investigation and settlement relating to directors’ fees for non-executive directors.  This involved detailed discussions with the Irish Revenue Commissioners and a subsequent successful settlement involving over 15 individual clients.
  • A class action appeal involving over 60 high net worth individuals in a tax avoidance case.  This case broke new procedural ground and resolved a case which, prior to our involvement, had persisted for over 10 years of difficult and costly litigation.
  • Several Irish property owners on VAT audits.  In one case, a client had recovered significant amounts of VAT.  The case involved a detailed analysis of Irish and EU VAT legislation and was ultimately resolved in favour of that client.
  • Appearing at the Irish Tax Appeals Commission on behalf of clients to dispute cases involving trading status for Irish tax purposes.
  • A client with regard to a professional negligence claim against an Irish advisory firm with regard to alleged negligent tax advice.
  • Acting on behalf of a financial institution in an international tax dispute involving questions of beneficial ownership and double tax treaty access.
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