hether developing strategies to minimize exposure to transfer pricing adjustments and tax penalties, providing the economic framework for advanced planning (including Advance Pricing Agreements), or supporting litigation to mitigate adjustments sought by U.S. or foreign tax authorities, ECS professionals have a tradition of devising innovative solutions to transfer pricing problems.

ECS is also the developer and principal sponsor of the Transfer Pricing Network, www.transferpricing.com, an Internet Web site dedicated to providing information about transfer pricing issues, and a forum for disseminating news and ideas in this area.

ECS has a knowledgeable staff of experienced economists and financial analysts. The significant strategic advantages offered to ECS clients include:

• A focus on economics. ECS is an economic consulting firm that fully utilizes the economic, financial, and statistical expertise of its senior staff. It does not rely on a rote adherence to checklists or standard procedures.
• A transaction-based approach. ECS examines the unique attributes of each client’s intercompany transactions and selects the best transfer pricing method to meet the given circumstances. In keeping with the preferences of U.S. and foreign tax authorities, ECS attempts to find third-party transactions that can be used to support intercompany prices directly. ECS uses profit-based approaches when appropriate third-party transactional data are unavailable or to test the reasonableness of a transactional approach.
• A customized product. ECS carefully tailors its work to its clients’ unique circumstances both in terms of the methodologies applied and in the preparation and format of the final report.
• Experience in litigation. ECS understands the level of detail and rigor required for cases that may be reviewed by the courts. ECS experts have successfully testified in cases before the U.S. Tax Court, and ECS has worked on many projects in various stages of litigation.
• Transactional data processing capabilities. The technical expertise and real-world experience that have made ECS a leader in antidumping and countervailing duty cases are also applicable in tax cases involving product-level data, such as comparable uncontrolled price ("CUP") documentation of arm’s length pricing and transaction-by-transaction FSC (foreign sales corporation) studies.