A STUDY ON TRANSFER PRICING

在过去十年中，美国修订或出台了新的转让定价条例，以加强税务机关控制转让定价做法的权力。1990年，美国国税局（IRS）发布了主要针对在美国设有子公司的外国跨国公司的拟议法规。根据拟议的规定，外国股东持股至少25%的美国公司必须保留大量文件，以证明其在美国进行的公平交易。两年后，这一趋势得到了加强。美国国税局承认并推荐了比较利润法（CPM）来计算公平价格。这种方法的特点可能不是对实际收入征税，而是对认定收入征税。包括日本和欧洲国家在内的外国政府强烈反对。1995年早春，我们向东京证券交易所（Tokyou Security Exchange）第一类上市的1232家最大的公司发送了调查问卷。我们收到了137个可用回复，回复率为11.2%。大约90%的受访公司在美国有一个或多个子公司。四家公司在美国有一百多家子公司。美国国税局审查了37个案例。几乎所有的答复者都反对实行CPM。许多公司都想采用利润分成的方法。我们研究的另一个特点是在日本发明的预先定价协议（APA），于1990年引入美国。美国国税局规定了纳税人就其转让定价交易或成本分摊安排获得预先保证的程序。大部分企业对该协议很感兴趣，但由于费用昂贵，而且需要花费很多时间，因此对是否与税务当局达成协议犹豫不决。然而，他们希望等待时间的到来，达成协议需要适度的费用。

Over the past ten years, the United States have revised or introduced new transfer pricing regulations to strengthen the power of tax authorities to control transfer pricing practices. In 1990, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issueed proposed regulations which are directed mainly at foreign multinational companies with U.S.subsdiaries. Under the proposed regulations, a U.S.company of which at least 25% is owned by foreign share holders is required to maintain extensive documentation supporting its arm's length transaction in the United States.This trend is fortified, two years later. the IRS admitted and recommended the comparative profit method (CPM) to calculate arm's length prices. The feature of this methos is likely to tax not real income but deemed one. The foreign governments including Japan and the Europan coutries were strongly against it.In the early spring of 1995, we sent questionarries to the largest 1,232 companies listed first class in the Tokyou Security Exchange. We received 137 usable responses, which represented a response rate of 11.2%.About 90% of the respomdent firms have one or more subsidiaries in the United States. Four companies have more than one hundred subsdiaries in the United States. Thirty-seven cases were examined by the IRS.Almost all of the respondents were opposed to be applied CPM.Many companies wanted to use profit split method.Another characteristics of our study is on advance pricing agreement (APA) originally invented in Japan introduced in the United States in 1990. The IRS set forth procedure for tax payrs to obtain advance assurance with respect to their transfer pricing transctions or a cost-sharing arrangement. Most companies are interested in this agreement, but they are hesitating to make an agreement with the tax authorities because of the extravagant expenses and much time to be spent. However, they hopefully wait the time to come moderate expenses are needed to arrive at an agreement.