Rocco Femia was quoted regarding the interpretation of the base erosion anti-abuse tax (BEAT), which can impose additional tax on companies that make significant "base erosion payments" to foreign affiliates. With respect to an exception for certain service fees, commentators have expressed differing views of whether the payment of a markup results in the treatment of the cost component as a base erosion payment. "There's no policy reason for pushing a taxpayer off a cliff if it pays a dollar of markup," whether that markup is paid because a foreign jurisdiction requires it, or as part of a company's global transfer pricing policy, said Femia, who was speaking at the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) Transfer Pricing Symposium in Washington, DC.