1. If you were a shareholder in BigSoft, would you support the company’s approach to transfer pricing? Why or why not?

2. If you represented the government of Ireland, would you support BigSoft’s approach to transfer pricing? Why or why not?

3. If you represented the U.S. government, or the government of one of the other nations in Europe, would you support BigSoft’s approach to transfer pricing? Why or why not?

The focus of this Global Debate explores “BIGSOFT: Should Companies be Allowed to Profit from International Transfer Pricing?” Transfer pricing in international companies has recently received increasing attention in the business and popular press, and this Global Debate is intended to help shed some light on why transfer pricing has become the focus of so much attention. The discussion provides a vignette of a hypothetical company that is using transfer pricing to alter its corporate tax bill by over $500 million per year. This brief scenario provides an interesting base to explore a range of different financial, political, ethical, and other issues associated with a management decision such as transfer pricing practices, and can allow the discussion to consider these issues from a variety of different perspectives.