Indian TP documentation & Form 3CEB — do I need an adviser, or can I do it alone?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: the report certifies the transactions, the method and the pricing, and it is accompanied by the prescribed documentation.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
What is Form 3CEB and who needs to file it?
Form 3CEB is the certification report on international and specified domestic transactions that Indian transfer pricing rules require eligible taxpayers to file alongside supporting documentation. It sets out the transactions, the related parties involved, and the method used to price them. We prepare the underlying analysis and coordinate the filing so it reflects the same positions taken in the broader transfer pricing documentation.
How does Indian transfer pricing documentation differ from documentation prepared elsewhere?
India's rules set out specific documentation content and filing mechanics that do not map exactly onto documentation prepared for another country's requirements, even when the underlying transactions and analysis are the same. We build the India-specific documentation from the same functional and economic analysis used elsewhere, adapting the format and content rather than starting the analysis over.
What triggers a transfer pricing dispute with Indian tax authorities?
Disputes commonly arise from a mismatch between the pricing method claimed in the documentation and the comparables actually used to support it, or from a related-party transaction that was not disclosed consistently across filings. We review the documentation for that kind of internal inconsistency before it is filed, since a dispute is far easier to prevent at that stage than to resolve afterward.
Is "fund transfer pricing" the same thing as transfer pricing?
No — and if you came here to calculate FTP, this is not it. Fund transfer pricing is a bank's internal allocation of funding costs and benefits between its own business units, a treasury and asset-liability management discipline used to measure branch or product profitability. Tax transfer pricing is about prices between legally separate related parties across borders, and about which country taxes the resulting profit. The words overlap; the fields do not. See our transfer pricing work.
How does an NRI prove residence to get the treaty rate?
With a tax residency certificate issued by the country you are resident in, plus Form 10F giving the details the certificate does not carry, plus a PAN in the payer's records. The certificate has to cover the period of the payment, and the payer needs it before paying, not afterwards. Missing any of the three and the deductor is obliged to withhold at the domestic rate, which turns a rate reduction into a refund claim. See TRC against Form 10F.
