TNMM in practice — where does doing it myself start to cost money?
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 method selects a profit level indicator appropriate to the tested party's functions, computes it for comparables, and tests the entity's result against the range.
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 the arm's length principle?
The standard that a transaction between related parties should be priced as it would have been between independent ones dealing at arm's length. It is the test every major transfer pricing regime applies, and it is evidenced by comparison — finding independent transactions or companies genuinely similar in function, risk and assets, then showing your pricing falls within the range they produce. That comparison is what a benchmarking study documents. See benchmarking study.
What is transfer pricing?
The meaning of transfer pricing is narrow and specific: it is how related companies in a group price what they sell each other — goods, services, financing, the use of intellectual property. Tax law requires those prices to be what independent parties would have agreed, the arm's length principle, so profit is not simply moved to a lower-taxed country. Canada tests it under s.247, the US under s.482, India under s.92, and each expects documentation prepared contemporaneously. See transfer pricing documentation.
What is an advance pricing arrangement?
An agreement with a tax authority, in advance, on how a category of intercompany transactions will be priced for a set number of years. Unilateral arrangements bind one country; bilateral or multilateral ones bind both sides of the transaction and are what actually removes the risk of an adjustment in one country without relief in the other. They take real time and full disclosure, so they suit large recurring flows rather than one-off transactions. See our transfer pricing work.
Will this trigger an audit?
Filing correctly does not create risk; a pattern of missing filings does. Where a disclosure route is involved we set out what the authority will see and in what order before you commit to it.
Do I have to come to an office?
No, though you are welcome to: we have offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE. Documents move through a secure portal and meetings can be in person or by video, arranged around your time zone, which is how clients across Canada, the United States, the Gulf and India work with us.