Numerous multinational enterprises (MNEs) have developed in-house capabilities and teams to manage their global transfer pricing. Many of our clients that run in-house transfer pricing teams note challenges such as:
- Limited resources to timely complete large numbers of documentation reports
- Inefficiencies with gathering and sharing information across departments and entities
- Difficulties organizing and tracking the status of projects
- Lack of an effective process to prioritize transactions and reports by risk exposure
- Monitoring and adjusting transfer prices during the fiscal year to achieve target levels of profitability in accordance with transfer pricing policies
- Tracking the location of global intangible property owners and mapping them to the associated functions (i.e., DEMPE functions: activities that are associated with the development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation of the MNE’s intangibles.)
- Maintaining a state of readiness for transfer pricing audits in various countries
The transfer pricing solutions currently available in the market fail to adequately address these needs. The last thing companies need is a “solution” that generates poorly worded boilerplate reports that can make tax authorities wince. For instance, the German tax authorities are on record expressing the view that generic reports reflect a company’s lack of care to make the proper investment in time and effort required to understand and explain the facts – and upon review of boilerplate reports, they become skeptical that the company’s transfer pricing policy meets the arm’s length standard. While well-designed templates are certainly useful to frame up transfer pricing master file and local files, an MNE’s documentation should be customized to explain its unique, specific facts. Companies understand that generic documentation can actually create more transfer pricing risks by falling short of telling the story and inadequately applying the transfer pricing methods.
Companies need a “portal” that enables them to streamline their processes and organize their global transfer pricing documentation. Such a tool should make it easy for the MNE to facilitate worldwide collaboration among professionals within the company and among its advisors by incorporating project management tools, tracking capabilities and communication across the globe. We have introduced Trans-Portal, a comprehensive solution with features designed to:
- Organize global transfer pricing documentation
- Collect data, perform research and analyze transfer pricing risks
- Update transfer pricing documentation (Master and Local files) efficiently
- Collaborate with colleagues across the globe to coordinate joint efforts
- Validate transfer pricing documentation by transfer pricing specialists
Trans-Portal’s purpose is to fulfill these fundamental needs. This intuitive, easy to use solution is designed to meet the market’s appetite for support to automate data collection; organize transfer pricing documentation such as the master file and local files, benchmarking studies and intercompany agreements; and manage transfer pricing risks. At the same time, Trans-Portal enables global teamwork both within the enterprise and with the company’s external service providers.