PREÇOS DE TRANSFERÊNCIA: CORRECÇÃO FISCAL

A seguinte notícia ilustra bem quais os valores que podem estar em causa num litígio em sede de preços de transferência:

Honda makes $7.7billion provision for transfer pricing dispute

International Tax Review

Honda, the Japanese motor manufacturer, has set aside $7.7 billion as contingency against a potential tax adjustment. The Tokyo Regional Tax Bureau has launched a transfer pricing inquiry into the company.

The inquiry is focused on the group accounts for Honda in the five years before March 2006. This includes its joint venture to manufacture cars in China.

The company disputes that it owes back taxes in relation to its joint venture but the bureau suspects that Honda channelled profits into the joint venture company to avoid taxes in Japan. The bureau has said that the profits from the Chinese operation were not at arm's length and that there will, therefore, be an adjustment.

In a statement, Honda said the tax authority believes that "too much of this total profit was realised by the Chinese joint venture companies over the five-year period ended March 31 2006".
The company said that it does not recognise any contingent tax liability for these years. It has, however, been obliged to report the provision of ¥80 billion ($7.7 billion) against the impact of an unfavourable adjustment. This has appeared in its Fin 48 report.

"The prices for transactions with the Chinese joint venture companies were intended to comply with the local laws and regulations of both Japan and China and result in the appropriate amount of taxes in both Japan and China," Honda commented.

Honda says that, despite the fact that it has recorded a potential liability in its final statements, it continues to argue that it has no tax exposure in Japan. The tax bureau's inquiry is not yet concluded and Honda says it hopes to convince the inquiry team by means of further factual evidence. The company says it has continued to assert that the allocation of profit between Honda and the Chinese joint venture companies was arm's length. Despite this Honda has not been able to reach an agreement with the bureau on this issue.