Paragraph 1.6 of OECD guideline stipulates arm’s length principle as follows:
where conditions are made or imposed between the two [associated] enterprises in their commercial or financial relations which differ from those which would be made between independent enterprises, then any profits which would, but for those conditions, have accrued to one of the enterprises, but, by reason of those conditions, have not so accrued, may be included in the profits of that enterprise and taxed accordingly
Putting it simply, arm’s length principle is a standard the amount charged by one related party to another for a given product must be the same as if the parties were not related
The arm’s length principle provides a framework to assess the reasonableness of the prices charged on non-arm’s length transactions
Arm’s length principle is generally based on a comparison of:
Prices on transactions between non-arm’s length parties (“controlled transactions”) with
Prices on similar transactions between arm’s length parties (“uncontrolled transactions”)
Arm’s length principle treats the members of multinational entity group as operating as separate entities rather than as inseparable parts of a single unified business
The taxpayer is expected to prepare the transfer pricing documentation to prevent the double taxation by demonstrating that the transfer prices of the related party transactions are consistent with arm’s length principle as well as complying to the local documentation requirement