The ATO released the Draft Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2018/D8. Transfer pricing arrangements have been one of the ATO’s focal points in recent years due to the increasing number of multinationals operating in Australia through subsidiaries acting as inbound distributors.
The ATO’s risk assessment framework considers an inbound distributor to be an intermediary between the producer of a good and another entity in the distribution channel or supply chain. The ATO’s draft ruling applies to a wide variety of inbound distributors including limited risk distributors for goods or digital products or services. The Guidelines also include any related activities involving the provision of ancillary services such as warehousing.
There is a carve out to the new guidelines if an inbound distributor chooses to adopt the simplified transfer pricing record keeping option (PCG 2017/2). Accessing the concessions in the simplified rules requires certain criteria to be met.
How are transfer pricing risks assessed?
The new framework assesses the transfer pricing risk by comparing the profit outcome of the arrangement against industry based profit markers. The profit markers are at the Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) level relative to sales. This measure of profit performance is calculated as a five-year weighted average EBIT margin.
The ATO’s position is that they do not generally expect inbound distributors to enter into substantial debt arrangements.
