In February 2020, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) released Transfer Pricing Guidance on Financial Transactions (“Guidance”). The Guidance is significant because it is the first time that the OECD’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines have been updated to include guidance on the transfer pricing aspects of financial transactions. In general, a financial guarantee provides for the guarantor to meet specified financial obligations in the event of a failure to do so by the guaranteed…

Multinational Enterprises (“MNE”) that are looking to mitigate their exposure to market changes provoked by crisis may find themselves considering the termination or suspension of intercompany agreements with non-performing parties. Terminating an existing intercompany agreement can very well be a key step that an MNE undertakes to protect its business; however, MNEs should also be aware that terminating arrangements could lead to unintended transfer pricing and tax consequences and may ultimately impact the structure of…

In February 2020, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) released Transfer Pricing Guidance on Financial Transactions (“Guidance”). The Guidance is significant because it is the first time that the OECD’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines have been updated to include guidance on the transfer pricing aspects of financial transactions. Generally, the treasury function is part of the process of making the financing of the MNE group as efficient as possible. For example, treasury may act…

In a recent landmark case involving basic transfer pricing principles, Canada v. Cameco Corporation, 2020 FCA 112, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal sided with the taxpayer. The Court rejected an argument by the Crown that would have applied “realistic alternatives”-like principles to effectively disregard and recharacterize certain related party purchase and sales transactions. For international observers, the case is worth studying, if for no other reason than to understand the government’s aggressive arguments.…

COVID-19 has placed unforeseen stress on the distribution structures of Multinational Enterprises (“MNE”) due to catastrophic losses and costs from supply chain interruptions and plummeting demand. Existing intercompany agreements most likely do not cover the allocation of catastrophic costs or losses and several questions may need to be addressed. For example, should catastrophic costs be shared among group members, and if the answer is yes, then how?…