IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/sbgwpe/2010_006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transfer Pricing as a Tax Compliance Risk

Author

Listed:
  • Jost, Sven P.

    () (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck)

  • Pfaffermayr, Michael

    () (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck)

  • Winner, Hannes

    () (University of Salzburg)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the transfer pricing behavior of multinational firms. Previous research mainly focuses on transfer pricing as a means of tax optimization. Our approach concentrates on transfer pricing as a critical compliance issue. Specifically, we investigate whether and to what extent the awareness of transfer pricing as a tax compliance issue responds to country and industry characteristics as well as firm-specifics. Empirically, the transfer pricing risk awareness is measured as a professional assessment reported by the person with ultimate responsibility for transfer pricing in their company. Based on a unique global survey conducted by a Big 4 accounting firm in 2007 and 2008, we estimate the number of firms reporting transfer pricing being the largest risk issue with regard to subsequent tax payments. We find that transfer pricing risk awareness depends on variables accounting for general tax and transfer pricing specific strategies, the types and characteristics of intercompany transactions the multinational firms are involved in, their individual transfer pricing compliance efforts and resources dedicated to transfer pricing matters.

Suggested Citation

  • Jost, Sven P. & Pfaffermayr, Michael & Winner, Hannes, 2010. "Transfer Pricing as a Tax Compliance Risk," Working Papers in Economics 2010-6, University of Salzburg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:sbgwpe:2010_006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.uni-salzburg.at/fileadmin/oracle_file_imports/1383232.PDF
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clausing, Kimberly A., 2003. "Tax-motivated transfer pricing and US intrafirm trade prices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2207-2223, September.
    2. Egger, Peter & Eggert, Wolfgang & Winner, Hannes, 2010. "Saving taxes through foreign plant ownership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 99-108, May.
    3. Clausing, Kimberly A., 2009. "Multinational Firm Tax Avoidance and Tax Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(4), pages 703-725, December.
    4. Brian Erard & Jonathan S. Feinstein, 1994. "Honesty and Evasion in the Tax Compliance Game," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(1), pages 1-19, Spring.
    5. Elitzur, Ramy & Mintz, Jack, 1996. "Transfer pricing rules and corporate tax competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 401-422, June.
    6. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc, 2008. "International profit shifting within multinationals: A multi-country perspective," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1164-1182, June.
    7. P. B. Oyelere & C. R. Emmanuel, 1998. "International transfer pricing and income shifting: evidence from the UK," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 623-635.
    8. Kant, Chander, 1990. "Multinational firms and government revenues," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 135-147, July.
    9. Horst, Thomas, 1971. "The Theory of the Multinational Firm: Optimal Behavior under Different Tariff and Tax Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 1059-1072, Sept.-Oct.
    10. Michael P Devereux, 2007. "The Impact of Taxation on the Location of Capital, Firms and Profit: a Survey of Empirical Evidence," Working Papers 0702, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:kap:itaxpf:v:25:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10797-017-9457-0 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Thiess Büttner & Michael Overesch & Georg Wamser, 2014. "Anti Profit-Shifting Rules and Foreign Direct Investment," CESifo Working Paper Series 4710, CESifo Group Munich.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transfer pricing; international taxation; multinational firms; tax risk management;

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:sbgwpe:2010_006. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jörg Paetzold). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/iwsbgat.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.