Transfer pricing to dominate international tax scene as authorities crack down, says survey

The report, produced every two years, also highlights the escalating amount of audit activity by tax authorities as they increase their scrutiny of transfer pricing.The survey found that 61 per cent of the almost 600 tax and finance directors interviewed regard transfer pricing as the number one international tax issue. This is up from 52 per cent in the 1997 survey.Transfer pricing investigations are also on the increase with 75% of the respondents to the survey believing an audit is either very likely or fairly likely, citing transactions involving administrative and management services as the area most likely to be audited. More than half of the multinationals surveyed have already been subjected to transfer pricing audits.