OECD has published a Manual on the Handling of Multilateral Mutual Agreement Procedures (MAPs) and Advance Pricing Arrangements (APAs), intended to be abbreviated as the MoMA

01/02/2023 OECD has published a Manual on the Handling of Multilateral Mutual Agreement Procedures (MAPs) and Advance Pricing Arrangements (APAs), intended to be abbreviated as the MoMA.

It is widely acknowledged that multilateral MAPs and APAs offer greater tax certainty to both taxpayers and tax administrations where different parts of the same transaction or arrangement involving a multinational enterprise are covered by multiple bilateral tax treaties. However, most jurisdictions have limited experience in coordinating bilateral MAP and APA cases to offer multilateral certainty. Accordingly, the MoMA is intended as a guide to multilateral MAP and APA processes from both a legal and procedural perspective and suggests different approaches based on the practices of jurisdictions, without imposing a set of binding rules.

The MoMA allows tax administrations to explore whether implementation of these procedures is appropriate considering the circumstances of their own MAP and APA programmes and to consider whether the guidance therein may be incorporated in their domestic guidance on MAP or APA processes to provide additional clarity. The MoMA also outlines the actions and cooperation expected from taxpayers to allow tax administrations to consider MAP and APA cases multilaterally. The MoMA is the result of the work done within the FTA MAP Forum. 

As a reminder, the APA is one of the tools available to large taxpayers to manage risks and to regulate the methodology in advance, in particular in complex or non-standard controlled transactions with the tax authorities.

Currently, there are no APAs concluded in Ukraine, and we hope that these recommendations will help to take the first steps towards the implementation of this practice.

Further information on the work done with respect to dispute resolution is available at https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/.

In turn, PwC experts are ready to provide more details on the updated edition of the OECD Guidelines and their practical application for transfer pricing purposes.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!