Definition: Recognising the principal party to a transaction

Category: National accounts

When a unit carries out a transaction on behalf of another unit, the transaction is recorded exclusively in the accounts of the principal.  As a rule, one should not go beyond this principle and try, for instance, to allocate taxes or subsidies to ultimate payers or ultimate beneficiaries under the adoption of assumptions. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=CA-15-96-001&mode=view