经济学人490:印花税 削减印花税如何让房屋购买方受损

 　　Stamp duty

　　印花税

　　Unexpected bills

　　不招人喜欢的税收

　　Why stamp-duty tax cuts may hurt homebuyers

　　削减印花税如何让房屋购买方受损

　　“TODAY I'm cutting stamp duty for millions of homebuyers,” crowed George Osborne, the chancellor¹ of the exchequer², on December 3rd when announcing reforms to stamp duty, a tax on buying property. Yet hidden in the forecasts of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is an assumption that implies most homebuyers will be made worse off by the tax cut. For every one percentage-point reduction in the tax, the OBR assumes that house prices will rise by 1.4%, leaving buyers with a bigger overall bill.

　　“今天我将为百万购房者削减房产印花税，”12月3号，乔治·奥斯在宣布房产印花税（一项针对购房征收的税收）改革的时候高兴的合不拢嘴。但是，预算责任局（OBR）的预测中却隐藏着这样一个假设，大多数购房者会因为减税而遭受损失。OBR预测印花税每下降一个百分点就意味着房价会上涨1.4%，对于消费者来说总支出提高。

　　房产印花税.jpg

　　At first sight, this seems odd. Economics suggests that the sensitivity of buyers and sellers to changes in the price—“price elasticity”, in the jargon—influences who ends up paying most for “transaction taxes” like stamp duty. Housing supply is not very responsive to price: it is hard to build homes quickly to take advantage of a price spike³. That means, according to economic reasoning, that, if stamp duty is cut, you would expect prices to rise and sellers to benefit more than buyers.

　　乍一看，这个观点似乎没什么道理。经济学家认为买方和卖方对于价格变动的灵敏度，即经济学术语中的“价格弹性”，会影响谁最后为“交易税”比如印花税买单。房屋供给对价格的变化并不那么敏感：很难在价格峰值期内投机大量建造房屋。也就是说，根据经济学的推论，如果削减房产印花税，房价会按人们估计的上涨，卖方比买方获益更多。

　　What economists⁴ would not expect, though, is that buyers would end up absolutely worse off. So why are buyers left with a bigger overall bill? Mortgages are key to solving the mystery. Most buyers are what economists call “credit-constrained”. What they can splash out on a new place is limited by what they can borrow. And the amount they can borrow depends in part on how much cash they can put down as a deposit.

　　但经济学家不会估计购买者利益最后一定会受损。那么为什么印花税的削减会导致买方最后支出的总价更多？房屋贷款是揭开谜底的关键。大多数购房者就是经济学家所称的“信贷受限者”。他们能在购买房屋上挥霍的多少受限于他们能够借到多少。他们能够借到的数额又在某种程度上取决于他们能够拿出多少现金做抵押金。

　　Stamp duty—a bill which must be paid immediately on buying property—drains that cash. When it is cut, buyers can put down higher deposits and borrow more. As a result, demand rises, pushing up the price enough to more than offset⁵ the benefit of the tax cut.

　　房产印花税——必须在购房时马上支付的一项税收——榨干了他们可以作为抵押的现金。在印花税得到削减的同时。这部分人可以拿出更多的抵押金，借到更多的钱。这导致需求上涨，推动房价上涨，直到足以抵消减少印花税所带来的优惠。

　　If the OBR is right, buyers of a property that cost ￡300,000 before the change in stamp duty now face ￡4,000 less tax but a price ￡5,600 higher. Buyers who were not previously⁶ in the market but can now afford a deposit will benefit, but this group is small. The main winners are homeowners, who benefit from higher house prices.

　　如果OBR的预测是对的，那么在印花税改革前一套价值30万英镑的房屋，如今减少了4000英镑的税收但价格却提高了5万6千英镑。之前那些没有购房但现在可以拿出抵押金的人群将会受益，但是这一群体的数量很少。大部分的受益者还是房屋持有者，他们可以从高房价中赚取差价。

　　There is a parallel with the government's flagship intervention⁷ in the housing market: Help to Buy. That scheme aims to assist buyers who cannot afford deposits by providing them with government loans. But its biggest effect is to boost demand and hence prices. Homeowners keep winning from government policy.

　　有一项政策与政府房地产市场的主要干预并驾齐驱：帮助购买。该计划旨在通过提供政府贷款来帮助那些无力支付抵押金的人们。但是它最大的作用是刺激需求，然后抬升价格。房屋所有者是政府政策中永远的赢家。

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 exchequer   

n.财政部；国库

参考例句：

• In Britain the Chancellor of the Exchequer deals with taxes and government spending.英国的财政大臣负责税务和政府的开支。
• This resulted in a considerable loss to the exchequer.这使国库遭受了重大损失。

3 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

4 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

6 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

7 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。