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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Planet Money: The carried interest tax loophole survives another challenge
The carried interest loophole was central to the debate over the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden this week. It's part of a bigger story about a tax code riddled2 with loopholes.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The last days of debate over the Inflation Reduction Act, as it was called, centered on what's called the carried interest loophole. Stay awake now. This matters. An attempt to close the loophole was removed during negotiations3 to collect enough Senate votes. Kenny Malone from NPR's Planet Money podcast tells us this is part of a much bigger story about a tax code that is riddled with similar exceptions.
KENNY MALONE, BYLINE4: The carried interest loophole is how some very rich people in the private equity5, venture capital, hedge fund world pay lower taxes today. But for some backstory, we head to the 1950s.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW")
BUD ABBOTT: Got to get rid of that $3,000, or we'll have to pay income tax on it.
MALONE: Comedians6 Abbott and Costello have been doing a surprising number of taxation7 routines.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW")
LOU COSTELLO: I wonder how I can get rid of this money.
ABBOTT: Wait a minute. I've got it. We'll give $1,000 apiece to the first three people we meet.
MALONE: That is some low-key tax-dodgery right there, which might have been topical because the U.S. had been in decades of expensive wars. Taxes had been going up and up. And by 1951, the top marginal income tax rate was 91%. Steven Bank is a tax law professor at UCLA and says it's not like politicians wanted this old wartime rate, but cutting it would have looked like a break for the rich.
STEVEN BANK: That was, like, kind of embarrassing. So Eisenhower didn't want to - nobody wanted to lower the top rate. But they all recognized that the top rate was outrageous8. So the way to deal with that without lowering the top rate was to provide a lot of exemptions9, to overlook a lot of things.
MALONE: The '50s sound like tax-break Oprah. You get a tax break. You get a tax break. And at one point, the tax code had a break for, like, film executives who left their jobs after 20 years and held profit shares for 12 years. And everybody was like, wait - this only applies to L.B. Mayer, the second M in MGM. Rich people were calling in the lobbyists, plus calling up tax lawyers to find all kinds of workarounds.
BANK: Large portion of the tax industry was devoted10 to conversion11.
MALONE: Conversion - meaning, can you call all this money that I'm getting this other thing? And problem solved.
BANK: Exactly.
MALONE: Classic trick - you convert personal income into capital gains, for example, which is taxed at a much lower rate. So the '50s are all exemptions and deferrals and conversions12, carving13 up the tax code into Swiss cheese. In 1954, the tax code was due for a big restructuring. But instead of our politicians just clamping down on the dodges14 and lowering the personal income tax rate, Congress and the IRS seemed to decide the fairest thing to do was tell everyone about these rich people tricks.
BANK: If 1954 enshrined anything, it's the entire code was replete15 with examples of people lobbying for specific provisions that would allow them to avoid the high marginal rates. It's what everybody was doing at the time.
MALONE: And just one of many little carveouts in the 1954 code was, basically, the carried interest tax break, a now-infamous tax break but also this vestige16 of the 1950s tax break bonanza17 that helped build the messy tax code that we all know and love today.
Kenny Malone, NPR News.
1 transcript | |
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2 riddled | |
adj.布满的;充斥的;泛滥的v.解谜,出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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3 negotiations | |
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过 | |
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4 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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5 equity | |
n.公正,公平,(无固定利息的)股票 | |
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6 comedians | |
n.喜剧演员,丑角( comedian的名词复数 ) | |
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7 taxation | |
n.征税,税收,税金 | |
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8 outrageous | |
adj.无理的,令人不能容忍的 | |
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9 exemptions | |
n.(义务等的)免除( exemption的名词复数 );免(税);(收入中的)免税额 | |
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10 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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11 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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12 conversions | |
变换( conversion的名词复数 ); (宗教、信仰等)彻底改变; (尤指为居住而)改建的房屋; 橄榄球(触地得分后再把球射中球门的)附加得分 | |
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13 carving | |
n.雕刻品,雕花 | |
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14 dodges | |
n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 );躲避;伎俩;妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 );回避 | |
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15 replete | |
adj.饱满的,塞满的;n.贮蜜蚁 | |
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16 vestige | |
n.痕迹,遗迹,残余 | |
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17 bonanza | |
n.富矿带,幸运,带来好运的事 | |
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