Resumo Relacoes comerciais entre filiais e subsidiarias do mesmo grupo economico implicam transferencias de bens e servicos, que exigem aplicacao do conceito de preco de transferencia sob o ponto de vista legal, mas que tambem pode ser utilizado para fins gerenciais. Assim, o objetivo do artigo e verificar a finalidade da utilizacao do preco de transferencia nas maiores industrias do Brasil. Para tanto, foi realizada pesquisa do tipo descritiva, por meio de levantamento ou survey, com abordagem quantitativa. A populacao compreende as 500 maiores empresas relacionadas na Revista Exame - Melhores e Maiores de 2005. Dessas selecionaram-se somente as industrias, num total de 272. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionario e se obteve retorno de 38 industrias. Os resultados mostram que 47,37 % fixam o preco de transferencia com a finalidade de avaliacao de desempenho dos centros de responsabilidade e 52,63% apenas para cumprimento de determinacao legal. Alem disso, 44,74% indicaram que o utilizam sempre para controle e gerenciamento do resultado dos centros de responsabilidade. Conclui-se que o preco de transferencia, apesar de ser amplamente abordado na literatura como um artefato de suporte ao processo de gestao, na maioria das industrias pesquisadas e mais utilizado para cumprimento de determinacao legal. Palavras-chave : Preco de transferencia; Centros de responsabilidade; Avaliacao de desempenho; Determinacao legal; Maiores industrias do Brasil. ABSTRACT Commercial relations between branches and subsidiaries of the same group of companies implies the transfer of assets and services, which require the application of the transfer pricing concept for legal reasons as well as for management reasons. The objective of this article is to verify the motives for using transfer pricing in the largest Brazilian industries. For this, descriptive research was conducted by a survey with quantitative analysis. The population was made up of the 500 largest national companies as listed in the Exame magazines Biggest and Best of 2005. From these, only the industrial companies were chosen, giving a sample of 272. Data was collected on questionnaires with 38 of those companies responding. The results show that 47.37% of companies fixed the transfer price with the aim of evaluating the performance of the centers responsible while the remaining 52.63% fixed the transfer price solely to meet their legal requirements. Besides that, 44.74 indicated that they always used transfer pricing for control and management of the results of the centers of responsibility. It was concluded that transfer pricing, despite being amply included in literature as a support for the management process, is used solely to meet legal requirements by the majority of companies researched. Keywords : Transfer pricing; Centers of responsibility; Performance evaluation; Legal requirements; Largest Brazilian industries.