Starbucks is getting some press today as a company that is having to justify transfer pricing.  As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog as well as in class, the tax authorities around the globe are increasingly starved for revenue and this type of thing, founded or not, is sure to continue.  There is just too much wiggle room for companies to use transfer pricing methods to escape taxes and in so many cases without an external market it can be impossible to defend a particular price regardless of how vaild/realistic it might be.

In a note to its annual British accounts for the year ending September 27, 2009, Starbucks said: “The company is in discussion with HM Revenue & Customs regarding its transfer pricing policy.”

Read more at:

Starbucks at loggerheads with the taxman – Accountancy Age.