来源：《每日电讯报》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月18日
The Government is finally facing an orchestrated and coordinated challenge to its economic agenda: the leaders of six major Tory backbench groups have written a letter urging Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, to drop his plan to hike corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent. Their intervention is timely and correct.
政府的经济议程终于面临着一场精心策划、协调一致的挑战：六大保守党后座议员团体的领导人写信敦促首相里希·苏纳克放弃将公司税从19%上调至25%的计划。他们的干预是及时和正确的。
Britain needs a radical growth drive to launch our way out of the cost of living crisis and restore our competitive edge. Keeping taxes as low as possible, allied with post-EU deregulation, is critical to that mission – and Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, used to agree.
英国需要一种激进的增长动力，以走出生活成本危机，恢复我们的竞争优势。尽可能降低税收，再加上退出欧盟后的放松监管，对实现这一使命至关重要——财政大臣杰里米·亨特过去也同意这一点。
When he ran for Tory leader in 2019, Mr Hunt pledged to cut the corporate rate to 12.5 per cent. By the time he had a second shot at the job, in 2022, he had mellowed a bit: the target now was 15 per cent. Today, unfortunately, he appears determined to squeeze the most productive parts of our economy.
在2019年竞选保守党领袖时，亨特承诺将企业税率降至12.5%。当他在2022年第二次竞选该职位时，他已经成熟了一些：现在的目标是15%。不幸的是，今天，他似乎决心挤压我们经济中最具生产力的部分。
Even if the Conservative high command is no longer sold on personal tax cuts, punishing business in the midst of a bad economic climate is short-sighted. Employers are being hit by inflation-prone costs – particularly energy and wages – and the super-deduction, introduced to encourage investment, is scheduled to end at the same time as the corporate rate goes up. According to the CBI, Britain will overnight fall from having the fifth most competitive tax system for capital investment in the OECD to the 30th (out of 38).
即使保守党高层不再支持个人减税，在糟糕的经济环境下惩罚企业也是目光短浅的。雇主正受到易受通胀影响的成本(尤其是能源和工资)的打击，而旨在鼓励投资的超级扣除计划将在企业税率上调的同时结束。根据英国工业联合会(CBI)的数据，英国资本投资税收制度的竞争力将在一夜之间从经合组织(OECD)成员国中的第五位下降到第30位(在38个成员国中)。
Worryingly, it seems that many in the Tory elite believe that Britain’s tax system will remain generous enough – and that global competition between developed nations is being phased out anyway. In reality, our citizens now face the highest tax burden since the Second World War, and investors are noticing that there are other, cheaper places to do business. The decision of AstraZeneca to build a state-of-the-art factory in Dublin rather than north-west England was significant. According to reports, even the offer of a £50 million state handout couldn’t compensate for the appeal of Ireland’s corporate rate of just 15 per cent. As the MPs’ letter warns, others might follow AstraZeneca’s lead.
令人担忧的是，许多保守党精英似乎认为，英国的税收制度依然足够慷慨——而且发达国家之间的全球竞争无论如何都将结束。事实上，我们的公民现在面临着自第二次世界大战以来最高的税收负担，投资者也注意到还有其他更便宜的地方可以做生意。阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)决定在都柏林而不是英格兰西北部建造一家最先进的工厂，这一决定意义重大。据报道，即使是5000万英镑的政府补贴也无法弥补爱尔兰仅为15%的企业税率的吸引力。正如议员们在信中警告的那样，其他企业可能会效仿阿斯利康。
Mr Sunak and Mr Hunt should listen to the concerns of their MPs, their constituents and the business community and announce a rethink, setting a new, long-term ambition of lower – not higher – taxes. History offers encouragement. From 2010 to 2017, when the corporate rate fell from 28 per cent to 19 per cent, receipts doubled from £31.7 billion to £62.7 billion. Britain’s future lies not in being a welfare state subsisting off a dwindling tax base, but an energetic, dynamic economy that is a magnet for foreign investment.
苏纳克和亨特应该倾听他们党内议员、选民和商界的担忧，并宣布重新思考，设定一个新的、长期的降低(而不是提高)税收的目标。历史提供了鼓励。从2010年到2017年，企业税率从28%下降到19%，政府收入从317亿英镑增加到627亿英镑，翻了一番。英国的未来不在于成为一个依靠不断减少的税基维持生存的福利国家，而在于成为一个充满活力、吸引外国投资的经济体。