Advance Pricing Agreements and the Principles of Legality and Equality: The Problems Surrounding Contracts in Tax Law

This article approaches the issue of advance pricing agreements created to serve as an alternative mechanism for resolving problems arising under the applicable transfer pricing regime. While APAs can be a very advantageous alternative, they are limited by the principles of legality and equality – limits which are addressed here in order to ascertain the acceptable scope of the functioning of an APA in a system that respects the safeguards of taxpayers as a whole.