Optimal Negotiated Transfer Pricing and Its Implications for International Transfer Pricing of Intangibles

Intangibles exhibit zero marginal licensing cost, including cross-border intra-firm licensing of intangibles within a MNC. A MNC may not realize the full profit potential of licensing intangibles intra-firm, however, under suboptimal negotiated transfer pricing schemes. Our negotiated transfer pricing bargaining structure unlocks this potential by producing an optimal transfer price and larger optimal intra-firm licensed quantity. Increased licensing of intangibles intra-firm across borders produces a greater potential tax savings/consolidated after-tax profit gain per unit of transfer price adjustment, creating a context where MNCs feel a greater imperative or incentive to move beyond legal tax avoidance toward evasion.