Canada's Transfer Pricing Test in the Aftermath of GlaxoSmithKline Inc.: A Critique of the Reasonable Business Person Test

International Transfer Pricing Journal, 2013 (Volume 20), No. 3

Posted: 30 Jul 2013 Last revised: 12 Aug 2016

Date Written: May 15, 2013

Abstract

GlaxoSmithKline Inc. v. The Queen is a seminal Canadian transfer pricing case. On final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Minister of National Revenue asked the Court to determine whether the Court of Appeal erred in applying the reasonable business person test. The author critically analyses the Supreme Court’s handling of the Minister’s question and concludes that the Supreme Court erred in affirming the test of the Court of Appeal. Moreover, the Supreme Court infused further uncertainty as to which test applies by seeming to have acknowledged the relevance of both an empirical arm’s length test and a reasonable business person test.

Keywords: Transfer pricing, Arm’s Length Standard, Arm’s Length Principle, Reasonable Business Person, GlaxoSmithKline, Canada, OECD, Tax, International Tax, Tax Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Canada

JEL Classification: H20, H25, H26, H29, K33, K34

Suggested Citation

Pichhadze, Amir, Canada's Transfer Pricing Test in the Aftermath of GlaxoSmithKline Inc.: A Critique of the Reasonable Business Person Test (May 15, 2013). International Transfer Pricing Journal, 2013 (Volume 20), No. 3 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2302606

Amir Pichhadze (Contact Author)

University of Oxford ( email )

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