The UK transfer pricing rules require an adjustment of profits where a transaction between connected parties is not undertaken at arm’s length and has created a potential UK tax advantage. Transfer pricing is a specialist area in tax and relies on an experience of similar businesses and activities. The following therefore only outlines the transfer pricing process in practical terms to allow a non-specialist to understand the methodology of a transfer pricing review.

The legislation defines an arm’s length price as the price which might have been expected if the parties to the transaction had been independent persons dealing at arm’s length, based on OECD guidelines. Application of an arm’s length principle under the OECD guidelines is based on a comparison of transactions between associated parties in a multinational enterprise (MNE) with the transactions which would have taken place between independent parties under the same circumstances; this is known as a ‘comparability analysis’. See INTM440000 onwards for details of the types of transaction which could give rise to transfer pricing issues.

In order to undertake