Nations Warn of Hurdles if UN Launches Transfer Pricing Database

Delegates at the United Nations warned the multilateral body against creating its own database of information on inter-company financial transactions, saying it would be too expensive and complex to maintain.

Lead negotiators of a UN committee drafting a new global tax treaty suggested the database for developing countries who often lack the money and capacity to access privately-run databases.

Transfer pricing refers to financial transactions between related companies that are part of multinational groups. Governments use transfer pricing rules to ensure the transactions are at arm’s length—priced similarly to transactions between unrelated companies. Tax authorities use datasets of comparable transactions ...