Sunday, January 31, 2021

Court Jurisprudence in Tax Disputes Involving an International Element

I want to thank the Business Consulting Academy for the opportunity to speak at a webinar on the topic of court jurisprudence in tax disputes involving an international element. 

In the context of the webinar, I would like to point out that at the end of 2020, the Supreme Court published its Review of court jurisprudence in the field of transfer pricing and international taxation. The review (in Ukrainian) is available at this link: https://supreme.court.gov.ua/userfiles/media/new_folder_for_uploads/supreme/Ohliad_transfertne_tsinoutvorennia_1.pdf.

Unfortunately, I am supposed to say that the document does not live up to the expectations that arise from reading its name. It cannot be called even a more or less comprehensive review of the court jurisprudence of the resolution of tax disputes in the field of international taxation. 

In general, the review discusses only the topic of transfer pricing, including quoting a number of unnecessary, in my opinion, for such a review, court judgements on certain obvious and non-debatable issues. 

Other issues of international taxation are not covered in the review at all, except for the two judgements concerned with permanent establishments and one judgement concerned with a tax difference arising from purchasing goods from counterparties registered in low-tax jurisdictions.