Additional guidance is still to be provided in order to fully clarify the transfer pricing issues related to financial transactions

The newly released public Discussion Draft “BEPS ACTIONS 8 – 10, Financial transactions” (the “Discussion Draft”) provides additional guidance to taxpayers and tax administrations on how to deal with controlled financial transactions.

Particular focus has been devoted to the accurate delineation of the financial transaction under Chapter I, as well as to the pricing of specific financial transactions.

Our concerns can be considered in four groups:

• The first considers how the accurate delineation of the financial transaction can support the proper definition of the transaction for transfer pricing purposes (i.e. loan vs. capital contribution).
• The second considers the use of risk-free interest rates as a remuneration for risk-bearing lenders with a limited functional profile.
• The third considers the cost-approach as an alternative to determine the risk-adjusted rate of return.
• The fourth considers some examples of potential internal comparable uncontrolled transactions (internal CUPs) to be used as reference in the pricing of controlled financial transactions.

 We provided our comments on 07 September 2018