Tax administrations have expressed concerns about cases they have observed in practice where an entity voluntarily terminates a contract that provided benefits to it, in order to allow a foreign associated enterprise to enter into a similar contract and benefit from the profit potential attached to it. For instance, assume that company A has valuable long-term contracts with independent customers that carry significant profit potential for A. Assume that at a certain point in time, A voluntarily terminates its contracts with its customers under circumstances where the latter are legally or commercially obligated to enter into similar arrangements with company B, a foreign entity that belongs to the same MNE group as A. As a consequence, the contractual rights and attached profit potential that used to lie with A now lie with B. If the factual situation is that B could only enter into the contracts with the customers subject to A’s surrendering its own contractual rights to its benefit, and that A only terminated its contracts with its customers knowing that the latter were legally or commercially obligated to conclude similar arrangements with B, this in substance would consist in a tri-partite transaction and it may amount to a transfer of valuable contractual rights from A to B that may have to be remunerated at arm’s length, depending on the value of the rights surrendered by A from the perspectives of both A and B ...

Contractual rights can be valuable intangibles. Where valuable contractual rights are transferred (or surrendered) between associated enterprises, they should be remunerated at arm’s length, taking account of the value of the rights transferred from the perspectives of both the transferor and the transferee ...

Rights under contracts may also be important to a particular business and can cover a wide range of business relationships. They may include, among others, contracts with suppliers and key customers, and agreements to make available the services of one or more employees. Rights under contracts are intangibles within the meaning of Section A. 1 ...

In conducting a transfer pricing analysis it is important to distinguish between features of the local market, which are not intangibles, and any contractual rights, government licences, or know-how necessary to exploit that market, which may be intangibles. Depending on the circumstances, these types of intangibles may have substantial value that should be taken into account in a transfer pricing analysis in the manner described in Chapter VI, including the guidance on rewarding entities for functions, assets and risks associated with the development of intangibles contained in Section B of Chapter VI. In some circumstances, contractual rights and government licences may limit access of competitors to a particular market and may therefore affect the manner in which the economic consequences of local market features are shared between parties to a particular transaction. In other circumstances, contractual rights or government licences to access a market may be available to many or all potential market entrants with little restriction ...

At issue was the transfer of taxable assets from a shareholder to a 100% owned company, “VSR Inc”. This transfer of resulted in an understatement of profits in a controlled sale of vehicle scrapping rights. Following an audit, the tax authority concluded that the rights had been acquired in the previous quarter from the one transferred and that a sale value below cost could not be justified. According to the tax authorities the arrangement lacked economic or commercial substance. The sole purpose had been to lower the overall taxation. An revised tax assessment – and a substantial fine – was issued by the tax authorities. VSR filed an appeal. Judgement of the Court The court dismissed the appeal and decided in favor of the tax authorities. “Since it is apparent from the above that the above transactions were intended to transfer taxable material from the applicant’s sole proprietorship to the associated company under the name of ” “, TIN and to tax them at a lower average tax rate, all the above transactions are therefore artificial arrangements which are not consistent with normal business behaviour and lead to a significant tax advantage without any assumption of business risk on the part of ” “, TIN Because, for each of the 2005 withdrawal rights, which is identical to a vehicle registration number, the tax authority identified the corresponding purchase document and determined the total acquisition value of these rights at the amount of six hundred and six thousand one hundred and sixty euros (€ 606,160.00), i.e. an average acquisition price per withdrawal right of € 302.32. Consequently, the taxable amount transferred, in the form of an artificial arrangement, from the applicant’s sole proprietorship to the associated company with the name ” “, VAT number , amounts to € 405,580.00 (€ 606,160.00 – € 200,580.00). In the light of the foregoing, the applicant’s claims concerning the tax authority’s unsubstantiated assessment of the existence of artificial arrangements and the absence of the element of intention are rejected as unfounded. Since the public administration is bound by the principle of legality, as laid down in Article 26(1)(b) of the Staff Regulations, the Commission is bound by the principle of proportionality. 2, 43, 50, 50, 82, 83 and 95 & 1 of the Constitution (Council of State 8721/1992, Council of State 2987/1994), which implies that the administration must or may take only those actions provided for and imposed or permitted by the rules laid down by the Constitution, legislative acts, administrative regulatory acts adopted on the basis of legislative authorisation, as well as by any rule of higher or equivalent formal force to them. Since the review of constitutionality is a matter for the courts and does not fall within the competence of the administrative bodies, which are required to apply the existing legislative framework, it is inadmissible and is not being examined in the context of the present action. Consequently, the applicant’s allegation of a breach of the principle of economic freedom in Article 5 of the Constitution, the principle of proportionality in Article 25 para. 1 of the Constitution and the requirements of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is rejected as being unfounded. Because the applicant’s claim that the excess amount already paid by ” “, TIN, as income tax (EUR 118 073,21) should be deducted from the income tax assessed on the applicant’s sole proprietorship, TIN, is rejected as unfounded in substance and in law, since there is no relevant provision in the tax legislation providing for such a deduction. With regard to the individual claim that the amount of the income difference found by the audit for his sole proprietorship of € 405,580.00 should be added to the expenses of the I.C.E., this is a matter that should be raised and dealt with by the I.C.E., which is a separate tax entity, and not by the applicant as a natural person, and is therefore irrelevant. “ Click here for English translation Click here for other translation ...

Contractual rights can be valuable intangibles. Where valuable contractual rights are transferred (or surrendered) between associated enterprises, they should be remunerated at arm’s length, taking account of the value of the rights transferred from the perspectives of both the transferor and the transferee ...

In conducting a transfer pricing analysis it is important to distinguish between features of the local market, which are not intangibles, and any contractual rights, government licences, or know-how necessary to exploit that market, which may be intangibles. Depending on the circumstances, these types of intangibles may have substantial value that should be taken into account in a transfer pricing analysis in the manner described in Chapter VI, including the guidance on rewarding entities for functions, assets and risks associated with the development of intangibles contained in Section B of Chapter VI. In some circumstances, contractual rights and government licences may limit access of competitors to a particular market and may therefore affect the manner in which the economic consequences of local market features are shared between parties to a particular transaction. In other circumstances, contractual rights or government licences to access a market may be available to many or all potential market entrants with little restriction ...

In this case a pharmaceutical company in the US, Eli Lilly & Co, transferred valuable pharmaceutical patents and manufacturing know-how to its subsidiary in Puerto Rico. The IRS argued that the transaction should be disregarded (substance over form) and claimed that all of the income from the transferred intangibles should be allocated to the U.S. parent. The Judgment from the Tax Court: “Respondent’s argument, that petitioner, having originally developed the patents and know-how, is forever required to report the income from those intangibles, is without merit. Respondent ignores the fact that petitioner, as developer and owner of the intangible property, was free to and did transfer the property to the Puerto Ricanaffiliate in 1966.” The Court of Appeals altered the judgement from the Tax Court. According to the Court of Appeals, the parent company had received an arm’s length consideration for the transfer of intangibles in the form of stock in the subsidiary. Hence, the Court disallowed the allocation of the intangibles’ income to the U.S. parent ...