Transfer Pricing Appeals — The Adjustment Is Not the End.

A transfer pricing adjustment typically arrives as an order of the Transfer Pricing Officer under Section 92CA, which the assessing officer incorporates into a draft assessment order. From there the taxpayer chooses between two routes. He may file objections before the Dispute Resolution Panel under Section 144C within thirty days, or he may allow the assessment to be completed and appeal the final order to the Commissioner (Appeals) or the Joint Commissioner (Appeals). The choice is made once and it is not reversible, and the right answer depends on the nature of the dispute rather than on general preference.

Beyond the first level the route is common. An appeal lies to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which is the final fact-finding authority — comparable selection, filter application, functional characterisation and adjustment computation are all questions the Tribunal decides finally, and it is therefore the most important forum in most transfer pricing disputes. From the Tribunal, an appeal lies to the High Court under Section 260A only on a substantial question of law, and thereafter to the Supreme Court. Because the Tribunal is the last chance on facts, the factual record must be complete by then.

There is a parallel treaty route. Where the adjustment produces economic double taxation and a treaty applies, the mutual agreement procedure allows the competent authorities of the two countries to resolve the matter between themselves, and it can be pursued alongside domestic appeal. Recovery is a separate question: filing an appeal does not by itself stay demand, so a stay application must be pursued before the assessing officer and, if necessary, the Tribunal. We handle the whole chain — choice of route, grounds, paper book, argument, stay and treaty procedure — and we prefer to be involved before the draft order rather than after it.