Common Tax Mistakes-Intragroup Services on Management Fee

Common Tax Mistakes -Intragroup Services on Management Fee

Intragroup Services

Intragroup services are services provided by one or more members of a multinational group for the benefit of the other members within the group. In general, the types of services that members of a multinational group can provide to each other include, but are not limited to, management services, administrative services, technical and support services, purchasing, marketing and distribution services and other commercial services that typically can be provided with regard to the nature of the group's business.

The costs of such services, initially borne by the parent or other service companies within the multinational group, are eventually recovered from other associated persons through intragroup arrangements.

Non Chargeable Intragroup Services

Shareholder activities

Shareholder activity refers to an activity that one group member (usually the parent company) performs solely because of its responsibility as a shareholder due to its ownership interest in one or more members of the group.

Examples of non-chargeable shareholder activities include:

  • Costs pertaining to the juridical structure of the parent company such as meetings of shareholders of the parent company, issuing of shares in the parent company and costs of the supervisory board;

  • Costs relating to the reporting and legal requirements of the parent company such as producing consolidated accounts or other reports for shareholders, filing of prospectuses; and

  • Costs of raising funds for the acquisition of new companies to be held by the parent company (distinct from fund raising on behalf of its existing subsidiaries).

Duplicative services

Duplicative services are services performed by a group member that merely duplicates a service that another group member is already performing in-house, or that is being performed by a third party.

In such instances, any duplicative claim will be automatically disallowed. The ability of a group member to independently perform the service (for instance in terms of qualification, expertise and availability of personnel) shall be taken into account when evaluating the duplication of services performed.

Example 1

A subsidiary has qualified personnel to analyse its capital and operational budget. This analysis is then reviewed by the parent company's financial personnel. The review by the parent company is considered duplicative.

However, there are exceptions in which duplication of services can be charged such as:

  • Special circumstances where duplication is only temporary. For example in implementing a new system, a company may simultaneously continue to operate an existing system for a short period, in order to deal with any unforeseen circumstances that may arise during the initial implementation; or

  • To reduce the risk of a wrong business decision such as by getting a second legal opinion on a particular project

Services that provide incidental/passive association benefits

This refers to services performed by one member of a multinational group, such as a shareholder or coordinating centre, which relates only to specific group members but incidentally provides a benefit to other members of the group.

Incidental benefit may also arise as a consequence of an associated person being part of a larger concern and not because of a service that has actually been provided. Such incidental benefits would not warrant a charge to the incidental recipient because the perceived benefit is so indirect, and remote, that an independent person would not be willing to pay for the activities giving rise to the benefit and therefore should not be considered as intragroup service to the incidental recipient.

Example 2

An enterprise that had obtained a higher credit rating due to it being a member of a multinational group should not be charged for its mere association with the group. However, if the higher credit rating is due to a guarantee provided by another group member, then an intragroup service can be considered to have been rendered

On-call services

An on-call service is where a parent company or a group service centre is on-hand to provide services such as financial, managerial, technical, legal or tax advice to members of the group at any time.

This service is considered non-chargeable under the following circumstances:

  • Service is easily and promptly available even without any standby arrangement;

  • The potential need for such service is remote;

  • Where there is no/negligible benefits derived from the service.

If there are exceptional circumstances which require on- call services to be considered as chargeable services, it must be proven that an independent person in comparable circumstances would incur such charges to ensure availability of the services when the need for them arises

Source : IRBM Chapter VI-Intragroup Services

CHAPTER VI - Intragroup Services | Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Malaysia

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