US Inbound: New APA report

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

US Inbound: New APA report

fuller.jpg

forst.jpg

Jim Fuller


David Forst

The IRS issued its annual advance pricing agreement (APA) report covering calendar year 2012. Interestingly, 75% of the APAs were inbound, that is, they involved foreign parent companies and US subsidiaries. The majority of all bilateral APAs were with Japan. There was a substantial increase in the number of APAs executed during 2012, which is a good sign. It likely was due to the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement (APMA) office's restructuring and, likely more significantly, to the substantial increase in the APA staff. This suggests the APMA folks are digging into their backlog, which is substantial.

However, processing time to get an APA in 2012 increased over 2011. While the APA report states that processing time actually decreased, this appears not to be the case. The average processing time went up from 40.7 months to 41.7 months and the median processing time went up from 36.5 months to 39.8 months. (Even more troubling, 2011 represented an increase in processing time over 2010.)

The decrease in processing time stated in the APA report summary compares 2011 average processing time to 2012 median processing time, which would appear to be a comparison of statistics that are not comparable.

Worse, the processing time for a new APA increased dramatically from 39.5 months median to 50.6 months median. This significant increase in processing time is not a good sign.

The number of APA requests filed in 2012 is consistent with the five-year average of APAs filed during 2008-2012. There was an increase in APA requests filed over the immediately preceding year, but this comparison would appear to be misleading. Far fewer applications were filed in 2011 than were filed in the three years before.

Fifty-three percent of the bilateral APAs finalised or renewed during 2012 were with Japan. This concentration of bilateral APAs with Japan dwarfs the second and third largest countries in terms of finalised bilateral APAs, which were with Canada, 16% and the UK, 10%. The total for the three countries alone accounted for nearly 80% of all US bilateral APAs during 2012.

A substantial number of the APAs (75%) involved the comparable profits method (CPM) or the transactional net margin method (TNMM). TNMM may have been involved because so many APAs were concluded with Japan. CPM, however, has always played an important role in the US APA process. In 2011, for example, CPM was involved in the great majority of APAs, both those involving tangible and intangible property and those involving services.

Jim Fuller (jpfuller@fenwick.com)

Tel: +1 650 335 7205

David Forst (dforst@fenwick.com)

Tel: +1 650 335 7274

Fenwick & West

Website: www.fenwick.com

more across site & bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The US can veto anything proposed by the OECD, Alex Cobham of UK advocacy group Tax Justice Network argues
US partner Matthew Chen was named as potentially the first overseas PwC staffer implicated in the tax leaks scandal, in a dramatic week for the ‘big four’ firm
PwC alleged it has suffered identifiable loss and damage arising out of a former partner's unauthorised use of confidential information; in other news, Forvis Mazars unveiled its next UK CEO
Luxembourg saw the highest increase in tax-to-GDP ratio out of OECD countries in 2023, according to the organisation’s new Revenue Statistics report
Ryan’s VAT practice leader for Europe tells ITR about promoting kindness, playing the violincello and why tax being boring is a ‘ridiculous’ idea
Technology is on the way to relieve tax advisers tired by onerous pillar two preparations, says Russell Gammon of Tax Systems
A high number of granted APAs demonstrates the Italian tax authorities' commitment to resolving TP issues proactively, experts say
Malta risks ceding tax revenues to jurisdictions that adopt the global minimum tax sooner, the IMF said
The UK and what has been dubbed its ‘second empire’ have been found to be responsible for 26% of all countries’ tax losses by the Tax Justice Network
Ireland offers more than just its competitive corporate tax environment but a reduction in the US rate under a Trump administration could affect the country, experts tell ITR
Gift this article