Description

The dawn of the 2020s’ has engulfed the world of transfer pricing with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”)'s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) 2.0 initiative and the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the current topsy-turvy economic and regulatory-burdened climate, the time now is ripe for Operational Transfer Pricing (“OTP”) to re-surface in streamlining transfer pricing requirements with overall business drivers.

Companies are being assessed on whether their transfer pricing policies are on par with what is happening in reality. Tax authorities are also scrutinising companies' year-end results to evaluate their comparability with forecasts projected at the year’s commencement and, if not, whether there is a valid commercial reason for any true-up adjustments.

With the growing prevalence of detailed digital (i.e. real-time) tax filing requirements, automatic exchange of information (“AEOI”) and country-by-country reports (“CBCR”), the complexity of transfer pricing has escalated in tandem. In order to keep up with tax authorities' data requests and digital capabilities today, MNCs and SMEs alike have to leapfrog on real-time reporting and analysis.

Notwithstanding the type of technology adopted, it is critical that one comprehends the issue to be resolved in its entirety so as to facilitate support across the board and elevate success of the OTP project.

In view of the above, this webinar sets out to explore OTP in a renewed light by exploiting its boons and banishing its so-called banes.

Programme Outline

• What is OTP?
• Why is OTP gaining traction at this juncture?
• How do you design and implement an effective OTP programme, i.e. end-to-end operating model, for the management of transfer pricing data, processes and governance?
• What are the key OTP success factors?
• What defines the OTP control environment?
• What are the potential benefits and common fallacies of OTP?

What you will learn

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Grasp the working mechanisms of OTP
• Align inter-company pricing policies with transfer pricing processes and controls through OTP
• Understand automation as an impetus to draw input and align various corporate stakeholders via OTP
• Implement a reliable narrative for compliance purposes that covers both policies and data under OTP

Target Audience

• Tax Professionals, Finance Professionals, Accountants and Auditors
• Business Managers and Directors

Expert Speaker

Dr Sowmya Varadharajan is a Director at IC Advisors Pte Ltd, a firm that helps companies design and document appropriate transfer pricing strategies and approaches for their related party transactions. Having been trained in the U.S. on international tax and transfer pricing issues through blue-chip corporations, Sowmya now applies her transfer pricing training to transfer pricing issues in the Asia Pacific region. 

Sowmya has extensive experience in the high technology/semiconductor as well as pharmaceutical/biomedical industries. In addition to transfer pricing, she is also skilled in IP valuation.  With the growth in transfer pricing related audits in the Asia Pacific region, Sowmya has assisted clients in India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in defending their transfer pricing arrangements with tax authorities.

Sowmya is an economist with Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University and has more than 17 years of transfer pricing consulting experience.