This diploma thesis operates with advance pricing agreements. In the Czech Republic, advance pricing agreements were implemented in the form of binding rulings in the year 2006. The goal of the thesis was to analyze and compare binding rulings in the Czech Republic and advance pricing agreements implemented in the countries chosen, which were Germany, Slovakia and Poland, with the theoretical concept of advance pricing agreements as stated in OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations.

Transfer pricing (TP) has for a long time been an important tax issue, however it is only within the past decade that it has gotten the attention it deserves. This since more and more corporations becomes globalized. When setting a TP within a multinational enterprise (MNE) it is important to consider the arm’s length principle. The reason for this is that all countries, involved in an internal transaction, are entitled to their fair share of tax revenues. The principle implies that when performing a transaction within a MNE, the price used shall be set on the same circumstances as if the transaction was performed between independent actors. Corporations which do not set their TPs in accordance with the arm’s length principle face the risk of adjustments and future audits. Setting a TP, which is in line with the arm’s length principle is, however, not an easy task, therefore the subject of advance pricing agreement (APA) has emerged. APA has existed since the middle of the 1980’s when it was first implemented in Japan. However, it was as recent as last year, 1st of January 2010, that a legislation concerning APA was implemented in Swedish tax legislation. The legislation implies that corporations which are a part of a MNE can apply for a binding agreement at the Swedish tax authority regarding future TP. This opportunity will provide for a foreseeable tax future. Due to this recent implementation of APA legislation in Sweden, we have chosen to conduct a cross-country analysis concerning regulations of APA, using countries which have had APA legislation for a substantial amount of time. The different countries which legislations we have studied in this thesis are Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S. The purpose with this thesis is to examine if the Swedish legislation concerning APA will provide any advantages for Swedish MNEs. A qualitative research method with the focus on an abductive research approach has been used for this thesis. The abductive approach consists of both deductive and inductive research approaches. The deductive approach is used to answer our research questions and the inductive approach is used to answer the purpose with our thesis. The purpose of this thesis consists of two research questions, what the Swedish APA legislation implies and are there any differences between the Swedish APA legislation and other countries’ APA legislations. After analyzing this new Swedish legislation and performing the cross-country analysis we have come to the conclusion that in general APAs provides substantial benefits for Swedish corporations. With the main advantages being the increased predictability and the reduced administrative burden concerning TP issues. In order for the Swedish legislation to be fully beneficial for the corporations it is, however, in need of some adjustments. If adjustments to the legislation are made we conclude that APAs will only provide benefits for Swedish corporations.

中國大陸移轉訂價法規起步較晚，但近年來中國積極防堵並加大查核力度，在大部分操作方式都被阻絕的情況下，台商僅剩「保留合理利潤」一途。如何在這個前提下達到利潤最大化並降低稅務風險，是本研究探討的問題。依本研究之結論，獲得以下之結論: 一、透過集團組織重組，建立集中化管理模式，依照各公司功能及風險考量，分配合理利潤。 二、在考量風險下，透過預先訂價協議及成本分攤協議以降低稅務風險。 三、建立符合各國法規之集團訂價策略，掌握各國稽核重點，制定集團統一的溝通及防禦策略，事先做好同期資料及相關文據以供備查。 / The development of regulations with respect to transfer pricing was started late in China, however, China took positive actions to avoid transfer pricing and enforced the rules more strictly in recent years. Therefore, the Taiwanese investors only have the way of “remaining the reasonable profit” in the event of that most of the operating models have been prohibited. How to obtain the maximun benefit and lower the tax risk in such situation are the objectives and questions of this study. According to this research, the conclusion is as below: 1. To allocate the reasonable profit by group restructuring and setting the centralized management mode in accordance with consideration in function and risk of each corporation. 2. To lower the tax risk through advance pricing agreements and cost sharing agreements in consideration of the risk. 3. To build the group pricing strategy which is accordance with the regulations of each filed, controlling the inspection focus of each countries, setting the group strategy for communication and defense, and preparing the same period information and other related documents for future reference.