This case deals with arm’s length pricing of various inter-company loans which had been granted – free of interest – by Cypriot company Ltd. to an affiliate group company. Following an audit of Cypriot company Ltd, an upwards adjustment of the taxable income was issued. The adjustment was based on a comparison of the terms of the controlled transaction and the terms prevailing in transactions between independent parties. The lack of interest on the funds provided (deposit of a remittance minus acceptance of a remittance) was not considered in accordance with the arm’s length principle. Cypriot company Ltd disagreed with the assessment and filed an appeal with the tax court. Judgement of the Tax Court The Tax Court dismissed the appeal of Cypriot company Ltd. in regards of the arm’s length pricing of the loans. Excerpt “It is evident from the above that the bond loan taken is related to the outstanding balance of the debt as at 31/12/2014 and is not an investment option. As the contracting companies are related entities, the above transaction falls within the scope of the verification of the arm’s length principle. As in the previous cases above, the independent party for the comparison of the terms of the transaction is understood to be domestic financial institutions. Therefore, the independent market interest rate for the calculation of interest is the interest rate of bank loans in euro for the interest rate category to non-financial companies “To non-financial companies – Long-term loans of regular maturity – Loans over EUR 1 million”, according to the methodology defined by the Bank of Greece. For the month of purchase of the bonds (December 2015), the applicable average market interest rate is approximately 4.86%, higher than the one specified in the contract (2%). It can therefore be seen that in the present case the principle of equal distance is not respected, since interest crediting the lender with a lower interest rate than the one applicable between independent parties is calculated. The accounting of interest on the funds granted at a lower rate of interest constitutes a derogation from the arm’s length principle. Therefore, the audit was right to calculate imputed credit interest in order to restore the arm’s length principle and in accordance with the provisions of Article 50 of the Law. 4174/2013. The applicant claims that it was not informed as to how to calculate the interest for the 2018 tax year in the note of findings, however, the reasoning and the numerical verifications are identical to the corresponding accounting differences of the previous years for which it received detailed information and therefore the allegations made as to the violation of the right to be heard in this matter lack any substantial basis. Since the applicant company also claims that the contested acts, which are unfavourable attributive acts, were adopted by the Tax Administration after the expiry of the exclusive period of one month from the submission of the observations and in breach of the provisions of Article 28 of Law No. 4174/2013 in conjunction with the provisions of Article 10 par. 5 of Law no. 2690/1999. However, this claim is rejected as unfounded as the right to control and issue tax acts is regulated exclusively by Article 36 of Law No. 4174/2013 and as it is clear from the evidence in the file, the stamp duty and income tax differences in question were charged by the issuance and notification of the contested acts within the prescribed limitation period (except for the contested stamp duty act for the tax year 2014, which was referred to above). Because the findings of the audit, as recorded in the 08/12/2020 partial audit reports of the income tax and stamp duty assessment of the C.E.M.E.P. auditor, on which the contested acts are based, are considered to be valid, acceptable and fully reasoned.” Click here for English translation Click here for other translation ...