Arm's length principle
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged with Arm's length. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2006. |
The arm's length principle (ALP) is the condition or the fact that the parties to a transaction are independent and on an equal footing.
The principle is often invoked to avoid undue government influence over other bodies, such as the legal system, the press, or the arts. For example, in the United Kingdom Arts Councils operate "at arms length" in allocating the funds they receive from the government [1].
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has adopted the principle in Article 9 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, to ensure that transfer prices between companies of multinational enterprises are established on a market value basis. In this context, the principle means that prices should be the same as they would have been, had the parties to the transaction not been related to each other. This is often seen as being aimed at preventing profits being systematically deviated to lowest tax countries, although most countries are also concerned about prices that fail to meet the arm's length test due to inattention rather than by design and that shifts profits to any other country (whether it has low or high tax rates). It provides the legal framework for governments to have their fair share of taxes, and for enterprises to avoid double taxation on their profits.
The use of "arm's length principle" is extended as a new concept in tort law. A person should keep an "arm's length" distance from another to avoid offensive or harmful contact, otherwise a battery or assault may result if one person goes too close to another without consent. To keep an "arm's length" from another person is respect to his/her bounds of dignity.