Proposta de diretiva de preços de transferência

: uma necessidade urgente ou a duplicação das já definidas diretrizes da OCDE?

Abstract

Over the last few years, we have been assisting to the globalisation of the economy, which has resulted in a significant increase of transnational transactions between multinational enterprises. These transactions, carried out by companies belonging to the same economic group, are easily subject to lower tax rates, due to the special relations they maintain. As such, related companies seek to subject their economic operations to more advantageous tax rules, having in mind the highest tax savings they can achieve, which brings us to the subject of transfer pricing. We start our study with an initial explanation of the arm's length principle, which is currently subject of numerous criticisms, as to its continued unviability on the definition of the right market price, in order to be able to introduce the main topic of our dissertation: the Proposal for a Council Directive on Transfer Pricing, published in September 2023 by the European Commission. Our main goal is to study the coherence and therefore, the necessity of the proposed new measures with the already existing and well established between countries, OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines. Thus, with the help of public opinions and consultations, we established our position on the EU's actions bearing in mind two central goals: on the one hand, if the proposed document aims to reduce tax compliance costs, and on the other, urges the need of a harmonized interpretation of the transfer pricing rules, we question whether it would not be more effective and appropriate, in turn, to transpose the principles published by the OECD into the EU law, instead of implementing a new legislative paradigm into force.

Date of Award	16 Sept 2025
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marta Isabel Martins Costa dos Santos (Supervisor)