Lawrence Joseph Williams
About me
I am a Doctoral Candidate at Stockholm University and I am currently conducting research regarding the compatibility of the arm's length principle with the WTO Agreement.
In summary, the purpose of the research is to:
- Provide a thorough study of the compatibility of the WTO Agreement with the arm’s length principle to allocate the corporate tax base among multinational enterprises (“MNEs”); and
- Whether alternative pricing rules, which deviate from the arm’s length principle to allocate the corporate tax base among MNEs are compatible with the WTO Agreement.
Depending on the scope and application of the arm’s length principle contained in the WTO Agreement, alternative pricing rules, which depart from the arm’s length principle, may lead to a conflict if national tax policy responses to these trends fail to take into account WTO obligations.
Research projects
Publications
A selection from Stockholm University publication database
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Discretionary Assessments in Transfer Pricing Audit Situations: Case Study on the Danish Tax Authorities Using Procedural Arguments Relating to Documentation Requirements
2019. Lawrence Williams. TPI - Transfer Pricing International 3 (4), 221-224
ArticleRead more about Discretionary Assessments in Transfer Pricing Audit SituationsOn January 31st, 2019, the Supreme Court of Denmark (Højesteret) gave its decision in the case of Skatteministeriet v. Microsoft Danmark ApS (Case 75/2018). This case concerned two questions: firstly, whether the transfer pricing documentations submitted by Microsoft Danmark ApS (hereinafter: Microsoft Denmark) for the fiscal years 2004 to 2007 were compliant with the Danish transfer pricing documentation requirements; secondly, whether the marketing activities performed by Microsoft Denmark on behalf of Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited (hereinafter: MIOL) during the income years 2004 to 2007 provided a compensable benefit to another non-Danish Microsoft group company. The case, and subsequently this article, highlights the important connection between procedural and substantive transfer pricing rules, whereby non-compliance with the Danish transfer pricing documentation rules could result in the Danish tax authorities making a discretionary assessment on the taxable income, the result being a shift in the burden of proof from the Danish tax authorities to the taxpayer.
Show all publications by Lawrence Joseph Williams at Stockholm University