来源：《华盛顿邮报》
原文刊登日期：2021年7月4日
文章结构
第一段：拜登全球税改获得了大多数国家的支持。
2到5段：拜登税改带来的益处。
第六段：最大的障碍是在国会通过税改立法，拜登和民主党应该努力克服。
Surely one of President Biden’s most ambitious economic policies is his effort to negotiate a new corporate income tax regime that would apply globally, so that multinational companies can no longer pit countries against one another in a tax rate “race to the bottom” to attract investment. Mr. Biden’s plan has already received approval from the seven leading industrial democracies, and on Thursday a far broader group of 130 countries also agreed to it in principle.
拜登总统最雄心勃勃的经济政策之一，无疑是努力谈判一个新的适用于全球的企业所得税制度，这样各国就不必为了吸引跨国公司投资而在税率上“逐底竞争”。拜登的计划已获得七个主要工业化民主国家的支持，周四，已有130个国家在原则上同意了该计划。
The plan’s key elements are a 15 percent minimum tax on the profits of large multinational corporations, coupled with an agreement to tax a portion of global Internet companies’ earnings where they actually make the money, rather than where they are headquartered. In addition to curbing international tax rate competition, therefore, the plan could also help countries raise money they need to pay for their responses to the global pandemic.
该计划的关键内容是对大型跨国公司的利润最低征收15%的税，同时还达成一项协议，对全球互联网公司的部分利润在其实际盈利的地方征税，而不是其总部所在地。因此，除了遏制国际税率竞争之外，该计划还可以帮助各国筹集所需资金，以应对全球新冠大流行。
It’s important not to exaggerate the actual financial impact of the plan. It would yield an estimated $150 billion per year, which is about 7.5 percent of the $2 trillion worth of worldwide profits that the Fortune 500 largest multinationals earned in 2019. That revenue would be spread among many countries. As for the provision on digital companies, it would essentially shift authority to tax about $100 billion of their profits from their home nations to other countries. The probable result is higher taxes on them, but exactly how much higher remains to be seen.
重要的是不要夸大该计划的实际财政影响。据估计，该计划每年将产生1500亿美元的税收，约占《财富》500强最大跨国公司2019年全球利润2万亿美元的7.5%。这些税收将分摊到许多国家。至于关于互联网公司的条款，它实质上将把对互联网公司的利润征收约1000亿美元税款的权力从母国转移到其他国家。可能的结果是对互联网公司征收更高的税，但具体多高还有待观察。
Nor would the deal eliminate tax competition. The 15 percent minimum tax seems to include exemptions for industries certain countries deem strategic, such as the British financial services sector. Ireland, with its 12.5 percent minimum rate, continues to object, which could complicate final approval in the European Union.
该协议也不会消除税收竞争。15%的最低税率似乎包括对某些国家认为具有战略意义的行业的豁免，比如英国的金融服务业。最低税率为12.5%的爱尔兰继续表示反对，这可能使欧盟的最终批准变得更加复杂。
Still, just curbing arbitrary disparities among national rules of taxation, and the distorted investment patterns they produce — often resulting in harm to the United States and its workers — would be significant progress. Even digital firms could benefit from greater uniformity, despite paying higher taxes in certain places than they do at present, assuming that the Biden administration’s concession on that issue is responded by other countries’ abandonment of unilateral digital taxes — which seems likely.
不过，仅仅是遏制各国税收规则之间随心所欲的差异，以及它们所产生的扭曲的投资模式——往往会对美国和美国工人造成损害——将是一个重大进步。即使是互联网公司也会从更大的统一性中受益，尽管它们在某些地方缴纳的税比现在高，前提是拜登政府在这个问题上的让步能换来其他国家放弃单边数字税，而这是有可能做到的。
The really hard part lies ahead: actual legislation in dozens of countries, to be followed by effective implementation. Given what seems inevitable Republican opposition to a plan that would limit the bargaining power of corporations, that means the Biden administration will have to push the requisite changes to U.S. tax law through Congress between now and 2023, while Democratic control is still guaranteed. For the sake of both tax equity and tax efficiency, it’s an effort worth making.
真正困难的部分还在前面：几十个国家的实际立法，然后是有效的执行。鉴于共和党似乎不可避免地会反对这项限制企业议价能力的计划，这意味着拜登政府必须在2023年之前，在民主党控制权国会仍然得到保障的情况下，推动国会对美国税法进行必要的修改。从税收公平和税收效率两方面考虑，这是一项值得努力的工作。