Part I. The APMA Program – Structure, Composition, and Operation

[Pub. L. 106-170 § 521(b)(2)(A)]

In February 2012, the former APA Program was moved from the Office of Chief Counsel to the Office of Transfer Pricing Operations ¹ within the Large Business and International Division of the IRS and combined with the U.S. Competent Authority staff responsible for transfer pricing cases, thereby forming the APMA Program (APMA).

As of December 31, 2021, APMA’s APA cases were handled by 80 team leaders, 25 economists, 9 managers, and 3 assistant directors. ² Each assistant director oversees three managers who lead teams consisting of both team leaders and economists. APMA’s main office is in Washington, DC, and it also has offices in northern California (San Francisco and San Jose), southern California (Los Angeles and Laguna Niguel), Chicago, and New York.

On August 31, 2015, a new revenue procedure governing APA applications was published in 2015-35 I.R.B. on page 263. Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2015-41 provides guidance, information and instructions on APA requests and the administration of APAs. Rev. Proc. 2015-41 updates and supersedes Rev. Proc. 2006-9, 2006-1 C.B. 278, as modified by Rev. Proc. 2008-31, 2008-1 C.B. 1133, which is also superseded.

Model APAs appear as appendices to this report. Appendix 1 is the model for APAs covered by Rev. Proc. 2006-9. Appendix 2 is the current model APA for APAs covered by Rev. Proc. 2015-41. A list of primary APMA contacts is available at https://www.irs.gov/ businesses/corporations/apma-contacts.

1 In 2017, Transfer Pricing Operations became Treaty & Transfer Pricing Operations (“TTPO”).

2 In late 2020, TTPO’s Treaty Assistance and Interpretation Team (TAIT) joined APMA, bringing the total number of groups in APMA to four. The three legacy APMA groups have primary responsibility for cases arising under the business profits and associated enterprises articles of U.S. tax treaties. TAIT endeavors to resolve competent authority issues arising under all other articles of U.S. tax treaties including issues arising under U.S. tax treaties relating to estate and gift taxes. As such, TAIT is separate from APMA’s APA program, and the total numbers of team leaders and managers handling APA cases do not include TAIT analysts and managers.

Bulletin No. 2022–15 947 April 11, 2022