The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on 10 July 2017, released the revised edition of the Transfer Pricing (TP) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations.
This 2017 edition of the TP Guidelines is an update to the Guidelines issued in 2010. It mainly reflects a consolidation of the changes resulting from the Base Erosion and Profits Shifting (BEPS) Project. The revisions made to the Guidelines include;
- Substantial revisions made in 2016 to reflect the clarifications and revisions agreed in the 2015 BEPS Reports on Actions 8-10 "Aligning Transfer pricing Outcomes with Value Creation" and on Action 13 "Transfer Pricing Documentation and Country-by-Country Reporting"
- Revised guidance on use of safe harbour rules approved in 2013 which recognises that properly designed safe harbours can help to relieve some compliance burdens and provide taxpayers with greater certainty
- Consistency changes that were made to the rest of the OECD TP Guidelines to produce this consolidated version of the Guidelines.
The 2017 revised OECD TP Guidelines retained application of the "arm's length principle" for valuation of cross-border transactions between associated enterprises for income tax purposes. The revised TP Guidelines take immediate effect in Nigeria as Nigeria's TP Regulations are required to be applied consistently with the OECD TP Guidelines as amended or updated from time to time.
In the coming days, we will be bringing you a detailed analysis of the changes contained in the 2017 revised TP Guidelines, as well as their anticipated local impact in the Nigerian tax landscape.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
