Rebel Curd, Robin Hart, and two tax lawyers were interviewed for an October 14, 2022 Law360 Tax Authority article about an unspecified transfer pricing method used by the Tax Court to determine a case involving an intangible property (IP) license in the medical device sector. Curd noted that unspecified methods are rarely seen in Tax Court opinions and could be the focus of an appeal in the case involving Medtronic.
The IRS and taxpayer positions were rejected on the basis that the data used for benchmarking was not reliable enough, but the 80/20 method used by Judge Kerrigan does not appear to be more reliable, she noted. Robin Hart said Judge Kerrigan attempted to “bridge the difference” between the parties’ pricing which resulted in something much more subjective. In practice, Hart noted that every price and adjustment is supported by data.
For additional commentary regarding the case, Robin Hart explores the facts and findings of the case, as well as the method used by the Tax Court in this Insights. Read the article.