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IRS Releases 2014 Competent Authority Statistics

APR. 16, 2015

IRS Releases 2014 Competent Authority Statistics

DATED APR. 16, 2015
DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Institutional Authors
    Internal Revenue Service
  • Code Sections
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Jurisdictions
  • Language
    English
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    Doc 2015-9068
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    2015 TNT 74-18
Internal Revenue Service Large Business and International Division Competent Authority Statistics

 

March 16, 2015

 

 

The Office of the United States Competent Authority (USCA) includes both the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement (APMA) Program and the Treaty Assistance and Interpretation Team (TAIT). APMA has primary responsibility for cases arising under the business profits and associated enterprises articles of U.S. income tax treaties and TAIT has primary responsibility for cases arising under all other articles of U.S. income tax treaties, including, but not limited to, articles concerning residence, dividends, interest, royalties, income from employment, social security, annuities, pensions and pension funds, other income, and limitation on benefits. TAIT also handles cases arising under U.S. estate and gift tax treaties.

This report contains statistics on cases handled by both APMA and TAIT including information on requests received, cases resolved, and pending cases. Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) information is reported separately in the APA statutory report. The cases discussed in this report are requests for relief from double taxation as described in Revenue Procedure 2006-54 and commonly referred to as mutual agreement procedure (MAP) requests. Part I presents APMA's statistics for MAP requests concerning allocation and attribution of business profits; Part II presents TAIT's statistics for MAP requests arising under all other treaty articles, including requests for discretionary determinations under limitation on benefits provisions. For 2013-2014, statistics reported for TAIT generally do not include TAIT's work on MAP cases arising under permanent establishment articles since these cases typically also involve an analysis or consideration of attribution of business profits and therefore are included in APMA's statistics. In addition, beginning in 2013, TAIT's statistics include MAP matters that are not taxpayer specific (e.g., matters endeavoring to resolve any difficulties or doubts arising as to the interpretation or application of a U.S. income tax treaty).

The data for 2010 through 2012 depicted in the following tables was calculated on a fiscal year basis covering the period October 1 through September 30. Because the USCA now tracks its statistics on a calendar year basis, the numbers reported for 2013 cover the fifteen month period of October 1, 2012 through December 31, 2013 and those reported for 2014 cover the twelve month period January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014.

Part I. APMA

                      Table 1: Requests Received

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Adjustments         Adjustments             Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 23                  77                  100

 

 2011                 25                 141                  166

 

 2012                 51                 130                  181

 

 2013                 48                 218                  266

 

 2014                 86                 200                  286

 

 

                        Table 2: Cases Resolved

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Adjustments         Adjustments             Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 31                  115                 146

 

 2011                 18                  119                 137

 

 2012                 16                   74                  90

 

 2013                 40                  119                 159

 

 2014                 48                   85                 133

 

 

                         Table 3: Case Resolutions 2014

 

 ______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

                               U.S. Initiated    Foreign Initiated

 

                               Adjustments       Adjustments           Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 Case Withdrawn by Taxpayer           1                 1                  2

 

 

 Total Adjustment Withdrawn

 

 by Initiating Tax Authority         28                27                 55

 

 

 Full Correlative Relief              7                17                 24

 

 

 Partial Correlative Relief

 

 and Partial Withdrawal

 

 (Full Relief)                        9                37                 46

 

 

 Partial Correlative Relief

 

 or Partial Withdrawal

 

 (Partial Relief)                     2                 2                  4

 

 

 No Relief                            1                 1                  2

 

 

 Number of Cases                     48                85                133

 

 

              Table 4: Case Resolutions by Adjustment Amounts1 2014

 

 ______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

                               U.S. Initiated    Foreign Initiated

 

                               Adjustments       Adjustments           Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 Case Withdrawn by Taxpayer         0.1%              0.0%               0.0%

 

 

 Total Adjustment Withdrawn

 

 by Initiating Tax Authority       10.7%             10.8%              10.8%

 

 

 Full Correlative Relief           39.5%              5.8%              13.4%

 

 

 Partial Correlative Relief

 

 and Partial Withdrawal

 

 (Full Relief)                      0.3%             82.2%              63.8%

 

 

 Partial Correlative Relief

 

 or Partial Withdrawal

 

 (Partial Relief)                  49.1%              0.7%              11.6%

 

 

 No Relief                          0.4%              0.5%               0.5%

 

 

 Percentage of Total Adjustment   100.0%            100.0%             100.0%

 

 

               Table 5: Average Processing Time (months)

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Adjustments         Adjustments             Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 25.6                30.8                29.7

 

 2011                 28.2                27.8                27.9

 

 2012                 23.1                26.6                26.0

 

 2013                 23.8                26.9                26.1

 

 2014                 15.0                25.3                21.4

 

 

                       Table 6: Pending Requests2

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Adjustments         Adjustments             Combined2

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 -                   -                   283

 

 2011                 -                   -                   312

 

 2012                 -                   -                   403

 

 2013                91                 433                   524

 

 2014               126                 592                   718

 

 

Part II. TAIT

                      Table 7: Requests Received

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Cases/Matters       Cases/Matters           Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 31                  48                  79

 

 2011                 23                  48                  71

 

 2012                 18                  37                  55

 

 2013                 77                  60                 137

 

 2014                 30                  38                  68

 

 

                        Table 8: Cases Resolved

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Cases/Matters       Cases/Matters           Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 23                  41                  64

 

 2011                 46                  58                 104

 

 2012                 16                  34                  50

 

 2013                 53                  49                 102

 

 2014                 34                  18                  52

 

 

               Table 9: Average Processing Time (months)

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Cases/Matters       Cases/Matters           Combined

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 28.4                24.4                25.9

 

 2011                 25.0                29.0                27.2

 

 2012                 24.5                18.9                21.0

 

 2013                 18.4                20.0                19.2

 

 2014                 14.3                30.2                19.8

 

 

                      Table 10: Pending Requests3

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

                U.S. Initiated      Foreign Initiated

 

                Cases/Matters       Cases/Matters           Combined3

 

 ______________________________________________________________________

 

 

 2010                 -                   -                   198

 

 2011                 -                   -                   165

 

 2012                 -                   -                   170

 

 2013                91                 118                   209

 

 2014                89                 149                   238

 

FOOTNOTES

 

 

1 Figures represent a percentage of the total dollar adjustments.

2 Reports prior to 2013 did not break down the combined number of pending requests by type of adjustment so combined totals cannot be reported in that manner for 2010-2012.

3 Reports prior to 2013 did not break down the combined number of pending requests by type of adjustment so combined totals cannot be reported in that manner for 2009-2012.

 

END OF FOOTNOTES
DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Institutional Authors
    Internal Revenue Service
  • Code Sections
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Jurisdictions
  • Language
    English
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    Doc 2015-9068
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    2015 TNT 74-18
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