爱尔兰的税收漏洞使其成为苹果避税天堂

2014-10-14 10:58:32来源：可可英语

　　A few weeks ago, the governor of Nevada, BrianSandoval, signed into law a tax “incentive package”that his administration had negotiated with Tesla,the electric car company. Tesla is planning to build agiant factory to manufacture the batteries thatpower its cars, and Nevada was one of five statesthat were competing fiercely to land the plant.

　　几个星期前，内华达州政府与电动汽车公司特斯拉(Tesla)谈成的“一揽子税收激励方案”，经州长布赖恩·桑多瓦尔(BrianSandoval)签署生效。特斯拉正准备建造一家为其电动车产品生产电池的巨型工厂。包括内华达在内，共有五个州为了让工厂在本地落户而展开了激烈的竞争。

　　It ultimately offered a staggering $1.25 billion package of tax breaks that includes sales taxabatements for the next two decades, 10 years of property tax abatements and nearly $200million in transferable tax credits that Tesla could sell to Nevada companies that wanted tolower their own tax bills. Although Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, insisted that at least oneof the other states had offered an even richer tax package, it is clear that the tax breaksNevada came up with played an important role in landing the Tesla factory.

　　最终，内达华州提供了一项总额高达12.5亿美元(约合76.7亿元人民币)的税收优惠计划，其中包括未来20年的销售税减免、10年的不动产税减免，以及将近2亿美元的可转让税收抵免额——特拉斯可以将其倒卖给想要少缴税款的州内公司。显然，内达华州所提供的税收优惠，是它拿下特斯拉电池生产厂的重要助力，尽管公司的首席执行官埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)坚称，其他参与竞争的州中，至少有一个承诺过更为慷慨的税收优惠政策。

　　In reading this week about Apple’s tax dealings in Ireland, I found myself reflecting on the taxdeals that American states cut all the time with companies they are trying to lure. It’s not allthat different. In a sense, what Ireland has been doing is the global equivalent of what thestates do to attract business. And that is especially true in the case of Apple.

　　本周，看着与苹果公司(Apple)在爱尔兰的税务安排有关的报道，我不由得想起了美国各州和它们极力延揽的企业之间频频达成的税收协议。两者并没有多大差别。在某种意义上，爱尔兰和美国各州为了招商而做着同样的事情，只不过爱尔兰上升到了国际层面。在苹果的事情上，尤其如此。

　　Ireland has long had one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe; it’s currently 12.5percent. That low rate, the Irish believe, helped attract industry and create the country’s boomin the years leading up to the financial crisis.

　　长期以来，爱尔兰的企业税税率在欧洲国家中位居下游——目前为12.5%。爱尔兰认为，在金融危机爆发前的那些年，这种低税率在吸引外资企业、推动本国经济繁荣方面功不可没。

　　But it did a lot more than simply offer a low corporate tax rate. It set itself up as a kind ofEuropean tax haven, so that companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others could, ineffect, buy an Irish address to which they could transfer a great deal of their intellectualproperty and route profits accrued elsewhere through the Irish subsidiary. This is calledtransfer pricing. Companies could also take advantage of other loopholes in the Irish taxcode to get their tax bill considerably lower than 12.5 percent.

　　然而，爱尔兰绝非只是提供低税率而已。它把自己打造成了欧洲的避税天堂，允许谷歌(Google)、Facebook和微软(Microsoft)等公司实际上仅需买下一个爱尔兰的地址，就能通过该国的子公司把应计入其他地方的大量知识产权和常规收益转移过来。这一招被称为“转移定价”。企业还可以钻爱尔兰税法的其他一些空子，让自己所承担的实际税负远低于12.5%。

　　As The New York Times reported in a groundbreaking article two years ago — and the SenatePermanent Subcommittee on Investigations confirmed last year — Apple takes advantage ofevery tax break Ireland offers. But according to the European Union’s competitioncommissioner, Joaquín Almunia, in a letter released this week, the company went a step furtherin its dealings with the Irish tax authorities.

　　就像《纽约时报》在两年前发表的一篇突破性文章中报道的那样，苹果公司充分利用了爱尔兰提供的每一项税收优惠。参议院常设调查小组委员会(Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations)去年也对此予以了确认。不过，欧盟负责竞争事务的委员华金·阿尔穆尼亚(Joaquín Almunia)在本周公布的信件中指出，在与爱尔兰税务部门进行纳税安排时，苹果公司做得更进一步。

　　In 1991, Apple essentially negotiated how much tax the company would pay. It did so after ithad explicitly “mentioned by way of background information that Apple was now the largestemployer in the Cork area with 1,000 direct employees and 500 persons engaged on a sub-contract basis,” again according to Almunia’s letter. Apple also acknowledged that it had “noscientific basis” for the amount of tax it was willing to pay. The deal was then “reverseengineered” so that Apple’s profits would wind up in the range that would yield the suggestedtaxes. (Apple now has 4,000 people working in its Cork manufacturing plant, the only Apple-owned factory in Europe; its tax deal with Ireland was reworked in 2007.)

　　1991年，苹果实质上通过谈判确定了公司应该缴纳的税额。阿尔穆尼亚在信中表示，公司在“背景信息中明确提到，苹果目前是科克地区最大的雇主，拥有1000名直属雇员，以及500名签署分包合同的人员”。此后，双方进行了谈判。苹果公司也承认，对于愿意缴纳的税额，他们并“没有科学依据”。这项协议后来被“反推”，如此一来，苹果最终的利润会刚好落在需要缴纳相应税率的区间。(苹果位于科克的制造工厂目前拥有4000名员工，是它在欧洲唯一的归自身所有的工厂;苹果与爱尔兰在2007年重新修订了税务协议。)

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