Tag: Group Service Centre

A special department within a parent company or regional holding company, or any other associated enterprise within a multinational group such as a group services company, providing services to associated enterprises.

Slovakia vs Coca-Cola s.r.o., April 2015, Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic No. 2Sžf/76/2014

At issue was deductions of management fees paid by a Coca-Cola s.r.o. – a Slovakian subsidiary of the Coca-Cola group – to Coca Cola Management Services GmbH & Co. AG. in Switzerland. The assessment sas issued by the tax authorities based on the OECD Guidelines on Transfer Pricing for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administration, which according to the tax authorities was a generally accepted supplementary interpretative tool to Art. 9 of the Treaty on the avoidance of double taxation within the meaning of the Vienna Convention on contract law. Documents and information submitted in the course of a tax inspection showed that in addition to the fee for the provision of management services, Coca-Cola s.r.o. also paid for the provision of employment services and IT services. In total, payments for provision of services in 2005 was € 1,463,385.46. In regards to MTC article 9 and application of the OECD Transfer pricing guidelines in Slovakia the Supreme Court stated: “… the OECD TP Guidelines, unless duly published, shall not be regarded as binding source of law under Slovak legal order … it is not binding on the taxpayers or the tax authority … the same applies for the OECD Commentary that has not been published in the collection of laws and therefore shall be regarded as non-binding recommendation that can only be used for the interpretation of international treaties … ” Click here for translation ...