经济学人:21世纪各国税制(1)

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Countries must overhaul¹ their tax systems to make them fit for the 21st century 为适应21世纪新环境，各国须彻底改革税制

If you are a high earner in a rich country and you lack a good accountant, 如果你在富裕国家，收入很高，却还没有一名优秀的会计师，

you probably spend about half the year working for the state. 你可能要花半年的时间为国家工作。

If you are an average earner, not even an accountant can spare you taxes on your payroll² and spending. 如果你的收入处在平均水平，那么即使会计师也不能为你免去在收入和花费缴的税。

Most of the fuss about taxation³ is over how much the government takes and how often it is wasted. 关于税收大部分的议论是政府收了多少税，而又多么频繁地浪费这些税。

Too little is about how taxes are raised. 而关于如何提高税收的议论则凤毛麟角。

Today’s tax systems are not only marred⁴ by the bewildering complexity⁵ and loopholes that have always afflicted⁶ taxation; 如今的税制不但混乱复杂，其漏洞一直影响税收；

they are also outdated⁷. 而且确已成为明日黄花。

That makes them less efficient, more unfair and more likely to conflict with a government’s priorities. 这使得税制更低效、更不公平，而且更可能和政府的优先级发生矛盾。

The world needs to remake tax systems so that they are fit for the 21st century. 世界各国需要重制适合21世纪的税制。

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister of Louis XIV of France, famously compared the art of raising tax to 法国路易十四时代财政部长让-巴普蒂斯特·柯尔贝尔，曾将增税的艺术比作

“plucking the goose so as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”. “从鹅身上最大限度拔毛，而只让它发出最低限度的嘶嘶声”。

Tax systems vary from one economy to another—Europe imposes value-added taxes, America does not. 不同的经济体税收制度各不相同——欧洲征收增值税，美国则不征税。

Yet in most countries three flaws show how the art of plucking has failed. 但是在大多数国家，有三个欠缺足以表明这种拔毛的艺术是如何失败的。

One is missed opportunities. 一个不足是错失机会。

Expensive housing, often the result of a shortage of land, has yielded windfall gains to homeowners in big, global cities. 土地资源短缺导致房价昂贵，全球大城市的户主因此发了意外之财。

House prices there are 34% higher, on average, than five years ago, freezing young people out of home ownership. 现在的房价平均比五年前高34%，越来越多的年轻人买不起房。

Windfall gains should be an obvious source of revenue, 意外之财应该是显而易见的收入来源，

yet property taxes have stayed roughly constant at 6% of government revenues in rich countries, 但在富裕国家，财产税大约还保持在政府税收的6%，

the same as before the boom. 和房价上涨前并无二致。

Another flaw is that tax sometimes works against other priorities. 另一个不足是税收有时会和其他优先事项冲突。

Policymakers in the rich world worry about growing inequality, which is at its highest level in half a century. 在富裕国家，政策制定者担心不平等会逐渐加深，半世纪以来，这种担忧已达到最高程度。

In the OECD, a group of mostly developed countries, the richest 10% of the population earn, on average, nine times more than the poorest 10%. 经济合作与发展组织的大部分国家是发达国家，在这个组织中，最富裕的10%人口的收入平均为最贫穷的10%人口的9倍。

Yet over this period, most economies (though not America’s) have shifted the composition of labour taxation slightly toward regressive payroll and social-security levies⁸ and away from progressive income taxes. 但在此期间，大部分经济体（不包括美国）将劳动税收的组成部分略微向递减的工资税和社会保障税转移，而不是累进所得税。

 

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