Transfer pricing: a comparative study of the french and u.s. Legal systems

Abstract

For several decades, the number of multinational corporations has significantly increased and this phenomenon has created a new problem: the issue of transfer pricing. Indeed, national states have observed that multinationals could simply manipulate cross- border transfer pricing policies in order to shift profits from one jurisdiction to another. France, along with the United States, was one of the very first countries to introduce transfer-pricing legislations. Although the aims of the French and U.S. transfer pricing systems are similar, the means used to apply such rules are different and often raise difficulties to get rid of double taxations. Nevertheless, many solutions can be found in the 1994 tax treaty enforced between both countries, whose goal is the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion. The mutual agreement procedure and arbitration are two of the proposed alternative solutions.