ABSTRACT

Transfer pricing for tax purposes has long been contentious, but recent political and public concerns about tax avoidance have energised critiques of current rules and debates about proposals for change. Transfer pricing tax rules are underpinned by the arm’s length principle and we consider how the common understanding of this principle has developed and changed, as criticism of it has grown and there have been increasing calls for change. In this qualitative study we draw on Bourdieusian concepts: we focus on the views of senior transfer pricing professionals relating to the UK and the US and consider how their views and transfer pricing practices have changed over a period of field disruption. This is important because calls for transformation of the field need to be cognizant of the extent to which existing practices are firmly embedded and thereby resilient to change. We find that over the period of our longitudinal study the senior transfer pricing professionals show a degree of adaptability to the use of the arm’s length principle, which continues to dominate.

摘要

出于税收目的的转让定价长期以来一直存在争议，但最近政治和公众对避税的担忧激起了对现行规则的批评和关于变革提案的辩论。转让定价税收规则以独立交易原则为基础，随着对这一原则的批评越来越多，要求改变的呼声越来越高，我们考虑了对该原则的共同理解是如何发展和变化的。在这项定性研究中，我们借鉴了布迪厄斯的概念：我们关注与英国和美国相关的高级转让定价专业人士的观点，并考虑他们的观点和转让定价实践在领域中断期间是如何变化的。这一点很重要，因为要求对该领域进行转型的呼吁需要认识到现有实践在多大程度上被牢固地嵌入并因此能够适应变化。我们发现，在我们的纵向研究期间，高级转让定价专业人士表现出对使用独立交易原则的一定程度的适应性，该原则继续占主导地位。