The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) announced its one-day seminar on transfer pricing and customs valuation, scheduled for 25 October 2012, in Montreal, Canada. This seminar follows the release of an ICC policy statement on transfer pricing and customs valuation on 15 May 2012 which was covered in an earlier issue. To recap, the policy statement was aimed at supporting companies that face the challenge of determining the appropriate related party valuation of goods. These parties are subject to customs and fiscal examinations and thus are bound by differing laws, rules and contradictory interests. ICC believes that these examinations should yield the same value, and that a resolution to the problem is in the interests of all concerned. In addition, the ICC Commission on Taxation has produced many proposals aiming to secure harmonised tax and customs valuation of transactions between related parties in an international context. These proposals are designed to help simplify regulations for companies and administrations and also to clarify rules for both parties so as to reduce financial impact linked to divergent valuation. Compliance costs to companies would be reduced if tax and customs administrations were to accept and implement these proposals. The policies could also minimise the risk of penalties resulting from opposing views between customs and tax authorities. The seminar, hosted by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Montreal, seeks to garner views on the subject by outlining the current situation and explaining ICC’s position and recommendations while deepening the debate with lawyers, compliance officers, and representatives from other international organisations. Six panels of experts will tackle regional and international problems of transfer pricing and discuss the conflicts between taxes and customs duties. The topics for discussion include; (i) customs valuation from the trader’s point of view, (ii) global standards in tax valuation, (iii) global standards of customs valuation, (iv) conflict between tax and customs valuation (includes a case study – modern business practices create ‘circumstances’ in financial relationships that result in particular valuation problems – exploring ways to minimise the likelihood of negative audit outcomes, (v) recent developments in the United States and global repercussions, (vi) the ICC policy statement on transfer pricing and customs value, and (vii) the emerging issues of reference pricing.
