TFL Vsebine / Revija SIR*IUS

The impact of intangible assets on transfer pricing

Neopredmetena sredstva so po eni strani tista, ki prispevajo največjo dodano vrednost pri doseganju dobička podjetja oziroma lahko povzročijo tudi znatno izgubo, po drugi strani pa jih je včasih težko prepoznati in še težje primerno ovrednotiti. To pa lahko v nekaterih primerih povzroča velike probleme davčnim zavezancem in davčnim upravam, če so taka sredstva vključena v čezmejne transakcije povezanih oseb oziroma gospodarskih družb v okviru mednarodnega podjetja. Regulacijo o načinih obravnavanja transakcij z vključenimi neopredmetenimi sredstvi je mogoče v manjši meri najti tudi v slovenski zakonodaji, več pa se temu posvečajo Smernice OECD-ja , za katere pa so v okviru poročila BEPS za akcijo 8–10 že vključene obsežnejše spremembe in dopolnitve, ki se nanašajo na neopredmetena sredstva. Z vidika komercialne uporabe neopredmetena sredstva lahko razvrstimo v tri stopnje, in sicer v najširšem pojmovanju kot intelektualni kapital, v srednjem pojmovanju kot neopredmetena sredstva in v najožji stopnji kot intelektualno lastnino. OECD loči med neopredmetenimi sredstvi, ki so samostojno lahko vključena v povezano transakcijo, in tistimi, ki samostojno ne morejo biti predmet povezane transakcije. Razumevanje vključenosti neopredmetenih sredstev v povezanih transakcijah je odvisno tudi od dobrega razumevanja lastništva neopredmetenih sredstev s pravnega in ekonomskega vidika.

Intangible assets or intangibles can valuably contribute to high profits or lead to substantial loses of multinational enterprises on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is sometimes difficult to identify all intangibles included in associated transactions or even more ambitious to determine its arm’s length value accordingly. In some cases, these facts can present big issues for tax authorities and for taxpayers who perform cross-border intercompany transactions with significant intangibles included. Slovene transfer pricing legislation contains few rules regarding intangibles involved in intercompany transactions, but much more about that can be learned from the existing OECD transfer pricing guidelines and the extensive Revisions to Chapter VI of these guidelines, which were published by OECD in October 2015 within the final report on BEPS Actions 8–10. Intangibles of economic relevance can be encountered in a variety of manifestations, which can be categorized in three groups based on their degree of intangibility from a commercial perspective. Such categorisation comprises intellectual capital as the broadest category, intangible assets, and intellectual property as the most narrow group from the commercial perspective. The OECD approach distinguishes between intangibles that can be separately included in intercompany transactions and intangibles that cannot be separate items of such transactions. In order to get comprehensive understanding of related transactions with the significant intangibles included, it is essential to understand the ownership concept related to intangibles and intellectual property in transfer pricing context from both the legal and the economic perspective