cost of transfer pricing

For older tax practitioners, it probably is easy to recall that one of the tax maxims is that tax compliance should not be overly taxing and onerous on the taxpayers. Ideally, tax should not carry additional cost beyond what is required in the ordinary course of business. As far as possible, it should be a fairly easily quantifiable sum with sufficient certainty.

Yet, in the present era of transfer pricing compliance, businesses, particularly multinationals are required to prepare lengthy transfer pricing documentation not unlike an annual report, which I daresay, like annual reports, a lot of the print is hardly read or appreciated. These documentation require specialists in the field to prepare and which contributes nothing to the businesses and in many cases produce end results that are at best a ballpark figure and at worse, a wild guess.

In that backdrop, it seems odd that there is a global trend for collecting tax based on transfer pricing documentation. This trend should be reviewed. Is it just about collecting some taxes? Do businesses really think the transfer pricing exercise helps them understand what the true transfer price is between them and their related parties. Is it a case of the tax authorities wanting to collect more taxes and the businesses playing along, simply because a business' true costing for its pricing whether related or otherwise could never be revealed for obvious reasons vis a vis its competitors.

If it is really just a matter of collecting taxes, shouldn't the OECD and the tax authorities gather and reconsider a way to collect taxes, which does not require businesses into revealing its true costing for its pricing potentially threatening its business core, nor does it depend on broad economic theories, not unlike the concept of efficient market hypothesis which carried so much weight in the 80s only to be shot down in more ways than one in the 90s in that can markets ever be efficient or is it inevitably affected by noise. Let's get real, theories are theories. Businesses succeed or fail for reasons only peculiar to itself and no one else. For instance one keyman falling sick could potentially bring a multinational down. How can there be true comparables, even if there is another company selling exactly the same product type when so much goes beyond just the product, such as marketing. More so when the global economy face challenging times, every business will undertake measures of its own to cope in order to survive. Can corporate decisions be dissected into its components just by looking at its public financial records in order to compare similar factors like working capital levels, inventory levels etc.

Tax collection is about taking money from taxpayers. It can only be constitutionally appropriate if the laws which provide for the tax is clear and unambiguous. Can the laws be clear and unambiguous in the context of transfer pricing if such laws or rules require some mathematical extrapolation based on some economic theory on pricing in order to arrive at the tax liability.

Countries like Malaysia new in attempting to compete in the global arena ought to take a step back to see if they would truly want to jump into the play 'which the rich can afford to play'. One wrong tilt of the dice could mean a company closing down its business in Malaysia and that would mean loss of jobs. Malaysia is also not a high income country that is generating huge profits for multinational corporations for it to be easily replaced as a location. But that is digressing, the issue should focus on whether such an exercise is productive or merely a waste of corporates time and money when much focus should be placed on productive income generation, just so the taxman can collect its dues.

If it is about collecting tax revenue, would it not be easier to just ask for contributions similar to cess. Contributions can simply be based on turnover, agreeing on an affordable rate for businesses to pay. Take it out of the tax legislation and appeal to the corporate social responsibilities of corporates. After all it is at best a ballpark sum. The difference is it makes everyone feel empowered and happy with what they are contributing. Multinationals feel welcome to operate in Malaysia just by making contributions to the country's tabung. Malaysia then is truly boleh.

Marriage

Marriage vows is not about love. It's about commitment, not between the couple, but a commitment to the children of the marriage.

Between the couple it is only about whether there is love or not. Commitment is about the children.

Marriage vows should be relooked. Are the vows relevant? Should it be reworded? Should it be more like a tripartite agreement with the children as an additional party.

Whitney Houston

I was just watching Oprah's amazing interview with Whitney Houston. Whitney was explaining what she went through over the last 8 years or so after 'Bodyguard'. As a big fan of Whitney, I have watched that movie over and over. Somehow I felt that Whitney was probably affected by that movie where her character had to give up love for her career. Although I watched the interview with the view of wanting to know Whitney's account of what happened to the lost years as if it was a loss, at the end of the interview, I felt it is not about loss but about life. What came through to me is Whitney's strength in choosing love. It may seem that she gave up a critical time of her career for passionate love. And why not. As much as career must be grasped hold of during the prime of life, so is passionate love. That moment gone can never be re-captured. One experiences love differently at different stages in life.

It takes courage to love wholeheartedly and it looks like she did just that. It is not about what Bobby Brown did. It's about what Whitney did. It's about giving one's heart wholeheartedly. It's about chance. It's not about whether the marriage was good. When a marriage fails, it's not about failure or regret. The love that first sparks the marriage is still as wondrously real as ever for that moment. It is better to have experienced that love than never ever.

I look forward to listening to Whitney's new album 'I look to you'. In choosing to live life, Whitney inadvertently connects with the real world. Her experience has made her singing ever more relevant, like in real life opera filled with emotional depth and maturity.