Sam Maruca’s transfer pricing goals may be too ambitious

When Sam Maruca, the IRS’s first-ever transfer pricing director, spoke to TPWeek in October 2011, he said his aims for his time in office were to improve the organisation’s transfer pricing process. While no one could be accused of disagreeing with his goals, to improve enforcement, resources, skills and to focus on intangibles, transfer pricing practitioners think the new director could be banging his head against a brick wall because of the structure of the IRS. Two lawyers, with IRS experience, tell Sophie Ashley how Maruca’s goals translate into the marketplace.