Care should be taken in comparing different national penalty practices and policies with one another. First, any comparison needs to take into account that there may be different names used in the various countries for penalties that accomplish the same purposes. Second, the overall compliance measures of an OECD member country should be taken into account. National tax compliance practices depend, as indicated above, on the overall tax system in the country, and they are designed on the basis of domestic need and balance, such as the choice between the use of taxation measures that remove or limit opportunities for noncompliance (e.g. imposing a duty on taxpayers to cooperate with the tax administration or reversing the burden of proof in situations where a taxpayer is found not to have acted in good faith) and the use of monetary deterrents (e.g. additional tax imposed as a consequence of underpayments of tax in addition to the amount of the underpayment). The nature of tax penalties may also be affected by the judicial system of a country. Most countries do not apply no-fault penalties; in some countries, for example, the imposition of a no-fault penalty would be against the underlying principles of their legal system.
Related Guidelines
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.21Some civil penalties are directed towards procedural compliance, such as timely filing of returns and information reporting. The amount of such penalties is often small and based on a fixed amount that may be assessed for each day in which, e.g. the failure...
- TPG2022 Chapter V paragraph 5.41Documentation-related penalties imposed for failure to comply with transfer pricing documentation requirements or failure to timely submit required information are usually civil (or administrative) monetary penalties. These documentation-related penalties are based on a fixed amount that may be assessed for each document missing...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.25Improved compliance in the transfer pricing area is of some concern to OECD member countries and the appropriate use of penalties may play a role in addressing this concern. However, owing to the nature of transfer pricing problems, care should be taken to...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.24It is difficult to evaluate in the abstract whether the amount of a civil monetary penalty is excessive. Among OECD member countries, civil monetary penalties for tax understatement are frequently calculated as a percentage of the tax understatement, where the percentage most often...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.5This section describes three aspects of transfer pricing compliance that should receive special consideration to help tax jurisdictions administer their transfer pricing rules in a manner that is fair to taxpayers and other jurisdictions. While other tax law compliance practices are in common...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.20There are a number of different types of penalties that tax jurisdictions have adopted. Penalties can involve either civil or criminal sanctions – criminal penalties are virtually always reserved for cases of very significant fraud, and they usually carry a very high burden...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.23Civil monetary penalties for tax understatement are frequently triggered by one or more of the following: an understatement of tax liability exceeding a threshold amount, negligence of the taxpayer, or wilful intent to evade tax (and also fraud, although fraud can trigger much...
- TPG2022 Chapter IV paragraph 4.28Since penalties are only one of many administrative and procedural aspects of a tax system, it is difficult to conclude whether a particular penalty is fair or not without considering the other aspects of the tax system. Nonetheless, OECD member countries agree that...
- Peru – report on use of the most appropriate method to determine the market value of servicesIn december 2020 the tax authorities in Peru issued a new administrative ordinance related to use of the most appropriate method to determine the market value of services. Click here for English translation...
- Guidance on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments 2010On 22 July 2010 a new report on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments was published. The 2008 Report will serve as background guidance to the 2008 revised Commentary‘s interpretation of the pre-2010 Article 7 for as long as bilateral tax treaties that...
Related Case Law
- Spain vs Representaciones Creta S.L., October 2018, Tribunal Supremo, Case No 1504/2018, STS 3632/2018 – ECLI:ES:TS:2018:3632Tax penalties/fines had been issued following a transfer pricing adjustments in regards of controlled transactions exempt from Spanish TP documentation requirements. An appeal was filed by the taxpayer claiming to be excluded from the Spanish penalty regime. The appeal was dismissed by the...
- Spain vs DIGITEX INFORMÁTICA S.L., February 2021, National Court, Case No 2021:629DIGITEX INFORMATICA S.L. had entered into a substantial service contract with an unrelated party in Latin America, Telefonica, according to which the DIGITEX group would provide certain services for Telefonica. The contract originally entered by DIGITEX INFORMATICA S.L. was later transferred to DIGITEX’s...
- Ukrain vs PJSC Galnaftochim, January 2021, Supreme Court, Case No 813/3748/16The tax authority conducted an inspection, where it found that PJSC Galnaftochim, when conducting business transactions with a non-resident related party, had to submit a report on controlled transactions. PJSC Galnaftochim, disagreeing with the results of the audit, appealed to the court to...
- Chile vs Monsanto Chile S.A, April 2020, Tribunal Constitucional de Chile, Case N° Rol 7864-19-INAMonsanto Chile, Since 2018 a subsidiary in the Bayer group, had been issued a tax assessment related to FY 2009 and 2010 resulting in additional taxes of approximately $800.000.000. and penal interest of 1,5% per month in an amount of $2.216.759.197. Monsanto filed...