Alston & Bird Tax Blog

transfer pricing

Diving into IRS’s Annual Report on Advance Pricing Agreements: Can APMA Overcome Its Sisyphean Task?

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Despite adding personnel and making a concerted effort to speed up the advance pricing agreement process, the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement Program (APMA) faces challenges with the mounting demand. Our International Tax Group breaks down the hurdles for APMA and identifies important trends companies negotiating APAs should keep in mind. APMA staff increased 21% last year, but median completion time for an APA increased to 35 months (up from 33 months in 2020) APMA would need more than three years to work through its existing inventory of bilateral APAs at its current processing rate [...]Read more

Has the Global Tax(man) Ended the “Race to the Bottom”? 136 Countries Agree to Overhaul International Corporate Tax System

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Our International Tax Group analyzes the pillars of a new international corporate tax system, but one that faces some major hurdles. Pillar One: a new taxing right in the digital worldPillar Two: a global minimum tax rate of 15%The road(blocks) ahead Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

International Tax ADVISORY: Big Tax Court Win for Eaton in Canceled APA Case

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The IRS abused its discretion when it canceled two advance pricing agreements. Our International Tax Group covers Eaton’s victory in the Tax Court and how it allays concerns about how worthwhile an APA can be.

Public and judicial scrutiny
Standard of review
Where do we go from here?

Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

Proposed Sec. 367 Regs Say Goodbye to Goodwill Exception

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Citing aggressive taxpayer positions, recently proposed regulations do away with the foreign goodwill exception to gain or income recognition for outbound transfers under Section 367. The rules also restrict the type of property eligible for the active business exception.

Reasons for Change

Per the preamble, taxpayers interpret Section 367 and the regulations in one of two ways when claiming favorable treatment of foreign goodwill and going concern value. One interpretation argues that goodwill and going concern value are not IP within the meaning of Section 936(h)(3)(B) and thus not subject [...]Read more