MULTINATIONAL BUSINESS RESTRUCTURING: ARE TAX AUTHORITIES TRYING TO HOLD BACK THE TIDE?

Business restructuring by multinationals has become increasingly prevalent as businesses seek to improve their profits through the location of business activities in countries with cheaper distribution, production, administration, or tax costs. This restructuring activity has been subject to increasing scrutiny from the OECD and tax authorities due to its potential impact on domestic tax bases. In particular, when profit-making activities are shifted from one jurisdiction to another, this can significantly alter the tax paid by multinational subsidiaries. Dominating the debate surrounding the tax issues are the transfer pricing implications of these reorganisations. This paper discusses the motivation behind international business restructures, including a review of some recent high profile examples, and considers why transfer pricing issues arise. Responses by the Australian and New Zealand tax authorities are examined, together with the OECD's report on the transfer pricing aspects of business restructuring and recent initiatives aimed at the issue of global profit shifting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]