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Donna McComber

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Donna McComber is a director of economics for Baker McKenzie Consulting LLC in Washington, DC. She is a seasoned transfer pricing advisor with deep technical insight into complex transfer pricing issues. Prior to rejoining Baker McKenzie, Ms. McComber was assistant director of the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement Program (APMA) under the US Internal Revenue Service's Large Business & International Division. She managed teams that were responsible for cases in the following countries: Argentina, Caribbean countries, China, Denmark, Eastern European countries, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Venezuela. Prior to becoming assistant director, she was the deputy director (technical) and reviewed US positions and negotiated APA MAP cases with treaty partners including Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Korea, Switzerland, and the UK. Prior to the IRS, Ms. McComber was a senior economist with Baker McKenzie.

The tax challenges of the digital economy may catch historically non-digital companies by surprise as they “go digital.” Baker McKenzie’s Special Report, Digital Revolution: Transfer Pricing on the Global Tax Battlefield provides insight into digital technology trends non-digital businesses are incorporating and the key tax trends companies must actively navigate including industry sector case studies, transfer pricing considerations, multilateral and unilateral measures, transfer pricing audits and dispute resolution.

On 18 December 2020, the OECD published Guidance on the transfer pricing implications of the COVID-19 pandemic (“OECD Guidance”) providing guidance to taxpayers when applying the arm’s length principle and applying the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations 2017 (“OECD TPG”) for periods impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This guidance emphasizes the use of the existing OECD TPG and the arm’s length principle to tackle difficulties caused or aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses upon transfer pricing and operating transactions but notably does not deal with transfer pricing of financial transactions such as interest on intragroup debt, other important intracompany transactions, such as management fees, are also not dealt with in the OECD Guidance.

The OECD Guidance should not be viewed as an extension nor as a modification of the OECD TPG.

Companies want and need to take action to deal with the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, or to take measures to enable their operations to weather possible outbreaks or similar events in the future. Those actions have transfer pricing implications, and if companies have an Advance Pricing Arrangement (APA), or are…