来源：《卫报》
日期：2021年4月8日
New tax proposals by Joe Biden mean that the economic emergency caused by coronavirus could result in big multinational corporations having to pay the fair amounts of tax they have avoided for so long. A breakthrough this week at the 135-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development talks in Paris may produce an agreement. Giants like Facebook and Google would then have to pay up – and not before time. This is definitely a step in the right direction.
乔·拜登提出的新税收提案意味着，冠状病毒造成的经济紧急状况可能会导致大型跨国公司不得不支付他们长期逃避的大量税款。本周在巴黎举行的有135个国家参加的经济合作与发展组织(oecd)谈判如果取得突破，可能会达成协议。像Facebook和谷歌这样的巨头不得不付清税款——其实早该如此了。这绝对是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。
Until Covid, the OECD corporate tax negotiations that began nearly a decade ago had been deadlocked, especially after the Trump administration refused to agree to anything that might raise taxes on US tech giants. Individual nations, notably in Europe, had started to impose or threaten stiffer local taxes, but without inhibiting the big multinationals’ lucrative tax-avoidance strategies. Under Donald Trump, the US had even made clear that it reserved the right to allow American corporations to remain outside any new OECD-brokered regime. Mr Biden abandoned that demand in January.
在新冠疫情爆发之前，近10年前开始的经合组织企业税谈判一直处于僵局，尤其是在特朗普政府拒绝同意任何可能对美国科技巨头增税的举措之后。个别国家，尤其是欧洲国家，已经开始征收或威胁征收更严厉的本地税，但并没有阻止大型跨国公司有利可图的避税策略。在唐纳德•特朗普的领导下，美国甚至明确表示，保留允许美国企业留在任何经合组织斡旋新机制之外的权利。拜登在1月份放弃了这一要求。
Things have changed even more now. The underlying reason is that Mr Biden needs to raise corporate taxes to pay for his expensive Covid stimulus and infrastructure renewal plans. The US president wants to raise $2.5tn from corporate taxes, reversing a Trump-era cut. But in doing so, he also needs to tighten up a system that has meant firms like Nike and FedEx, as well as the tech giants such as Amazon which Mr Biden specifically criticised last week, have paid little or no US federal tax for years. He also has to find ways of preventing US corporations from simply moving their profits offshore, as firms including Apple and big-pharma companies have been doing for years.
现在情况发生了更大的变化。根本原因是，拜登需要提高企业税，为他昂贵的新冠刺激计划和基础设施更新计划买单。这位美国总统希望通过企业税筹集2.5万亿美元，扭转特朗普时代的减税政策。但在这样做的同时，他也需要使税务制度更加严格，在现有制度下，像耐克和联邦快递这样的公司，以及像亚马逊这样的科技巨头(拜登上周特别批评了亚马逊)多年来几乎或根本不缴纳美国联邦税。他还必须想办法阻止美国公司直接将利润转移到海外，就像苹果和大型制药公司多年来一直在做的那样。
The result is the proposal made by the Biden administration. Under it, the very largest global companies – probably about 100 of them, and including tech and non-tech – would pay levies to national governments as part of a deal that sets a global minimum tax which the US wants to see at 21%. The plan would create stability to allow the administration to increase corporate taxes at home without the fear that other countries would weaken it with rates as low as Ireland’s current 12.5% corporate tax, competitive tactics that have fed the multinationals’ profit-shifting strategies. This could bring an end to what the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has criticised as a race to the bottom.
疯狂避税的结果就是拜登政府制定的提案。根据该提案，全球最大的公司——可能有100家左右，包括科技和非科技公司——将向各国政府交税，作为提案的一部分，美国希望将全球最低税率设为21%。该计划将创造稳定，使美国政府可以提高国内的公司税，而不必担心其他国家会以爱尔兰目前12.5%的公司税那样低的税率来削弱它，这种竞争策略助长了跨国公司的利润转移战略。这可能会结束美国财长珍妮特•耶伦所批评的“逐底竞争”。
There have been diplomatic signs this week that the US proposal may signal a breakthrough. This could in turn lead to an OECD agreement as soon as July. But an agreement, while desirable and welcome, would not be the end of the story. Unless and until the global taxation system is made truly flawless, the danger that corporations will continue to try to hide their profits in offshore financial centers will always remain.
本周有外交迹象表明，美国的提议可能意味着突破。这进而可能导致经合组织最快在7月达成协议。然而，尽管达成协议令人满意、受欢迎，但这并不是故事的结局。除非全球税收体系真正做到无懈不击，否则企业继续试图将其利润隐藏在离岸金融中心的危险永远存在。