Friday, June 3, 2011

Location of the U.S. APA Program: An Old Debate with a New Dynamic

Tweet

Where to put the Advance Pricing Agreement Program at the IRS has been an issue since the program was created over 20 years ago. In fact, the tug of war over the program between Chief Counsel and what was then the office of the Assistant Commissioner (International) was what led to the creation of the Deputy Director position in 1993, which was to be filled by a staff member from ACI. While the debates over the program's location that arose in 1993 and 2000 seemed to stem from turf battles and personality conflicts, I don't get that sense about the current debate. While some folks expressed concern about objectivity, that too is less of an issue than it was. The old fear about having staff from the audit side--where the U.S. Competent Authority technically is housed--working the cases has abated significantly. The common feeling seems to be that the field and the APA Program are pretty much on the same page when it comes to interpreting the latest Section 482 rules, which APA staff helped to write. Now, APA staff are seen more as the enforcers of the domestic rules, while the competent authority analysts, who negotiate the cases with the foreign authorities, are perceived as less tied down by the rules because their role is to look to the relevant treaties. So, while the topic of debate is the same as in past years, taxpayer sentiment may have shifted. 

--Molly Moses, Transfer Pricing Report

Subscribers to BNA Tax Management Transfer Pricing Report can read the full article at http://news.bna.com/trln/TMTRWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=17605533&vname=tmtrnot&fn=17605533&jd=17605533 

All BNA publications are subscription-based and require an account. If you are a subscriber to the BNA publication and signed-in, you will automatically have access to the story. If you are not a subscriber, you will need to sign-up for a trial subscription.