税收制度帮助刺激低收入国家发展

税收制度帮助刺激低收入国家发展

Low-income countries are being called on to generate their own financial resources for development.

低收入国家被要求发展用于本国建设的财政资源，

One of the ways they can do that is through taxes.

而其中一种方式就是通过税收制度实现。

It's being discussed at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa.

亚的斯亚贝巴举行的第三届国际发展融资会议正就这个问题展开全方位的讨论。

Britain's Institute of Development Studies has issued a policy brief on Building Tax Capacity in Developing Countries.

英国的发展研究公布了一份名为《在发展中国家建设税收能力》的政策简报。

It says that “governments will be urged to tax more effectively” and donors 1 will be called upon to help build the capacity to do so.

该报告称发展中国家政府要更为有效地开展征税工作并呼吁捐助方提供帮助。

Professor Mick Moore, CEO of the International Center for Tax and Development and one of the authors of the brief.

米克·莫尔教授是国际税收及发展中心的首席执行官，也是该报告的一位作者。

“I think there's now a very widespread understanding that a lot of low income countries could probably raise more of their own money themselves. And many of them understand this. You know, we've had an era of what I call big aid for quite a long time now. And I think it's clear to most people in the world that that era of big aid is going to draw to an end.” 

“我觉得现在有种普遍的理解，即很多低收入国家可以自行筹到更多的钱。而很多国家也都理解这点。你知道，很长时间内我们都在经历这种我称之为大援助的时代，而觉得世界上的很多人都气清楚，这个时代即将划上句号。”

He said donors would continue providing aid for such things as humanitarian 2 emergencies. Many low-income countries, he said, would be “happier if they were not dependent on donors and could just raise their own money.”

他表示捐助方将继续提供紧急人道救援等援助，而且很多低收入国家如果不必依赖援助国，自己就能筹集资金会“更高兴”。

Labeling a country “low-income” may give the impression that it does not have much of a tax base.Moore disagreed.

给一个国家打上“低收入”的标签可能会造成该国没有足够的计税基础的印象。莫尔并不赞同。

“Well, it's not really the case. Even low-income countries have a tax base. It's not as big as the tax base in the U.S. or the U.K.,but it's quite substantial and it's not always tapped into very well. So, there is certainly scope for doing better there.”

“实际情况并非如此。即使是低收入国家也有计税基础，虽然不像美国或英国，但也有着相当大的潜力，而且没有很好地利用。因此当然有很大的改善空间。”

The IDS professorial fellow said building taxation 3 capacity in a low-income country does not necessarily mean taxing poor people.

这位教授表示在低收入国家建设税收能力并不意味着一定向穷人征税。

“There's a great deal of tax evasion 4 and the worst tax evasion happens in low-income countries is not actually poor people. But it's because there are a lot of unrecorded transactions in the economy. Doctors, lawyers, consultants 5, dentists, artists,architects-professional people of all kind operate on a cash basis and they don't pay taxes. Large numbers of people own a lot of property. Property taxes are extremely low in most low-income countries.”

“在低收入国家存在的大量逃税现象，最恶劣的逃税者，但却并非穷人所为。因为这些国家的经济体系中很多交易是没有记录的，医生、律师、咨询人员、牙医、艺术家和建筑师等等，各种专业人员都是现金交易，并没有缴税。很多人掌控大量财产。而在多数低收入国家财产税低到了极点。”

Moore said low-income countries already have a tax foundation to build on.

莫尔表示这些低收入国家可以在收税的基础继续发展。

“Even the lowest-income countries all have a system of taxation at present. And that system of taxation actually doesn't look a million miles different from the taxation system in you'll find in the U.S. So, it's not as if they've got to start from nothing. It's just that they have a machine there and they're not using the machine to quite its capacity.”

“即使是收入最低的国家目前也有计税制度，而且同美国相比，那套税制看上去并非有很大差距。因此并不是从头开始。这就好比他们有机器设备，但没有加以利用。”

One reason is a lack of staff well versed 6 in tax matters.

其中一个原因是缺乏熟悉税务的员工。

That's due to qualified 7 people taking jobs in the private sector 8.

这是因为合格人员都在私企上班。

Moore said other reasons include a lack of commitment by the government to do something about taxation-or the government being too eager to give tax breaks to foreign investors 9.

莫尔表示其它原因则是对于改革税收方面政府缺乏执行力或过于迫切向国外投资者提供税收优惠。

The Institute for Development Studies policy brief said successful tax collection is based on trust.

发展研究所的简报称成功税收是建立在信任的基础之上。

“We have a long history now of rich countries trying to support the development of organizations in low-income countries. When we're giving the money we want to do it our way, according to our timetable. And we want our experts to visit there when it's suitable for us. But in many cases and especially true I think in the tax field where you have quite few rather well educated people, they often know what their problem is. They don't need us to tell them what the problem is, but they genuinely do need our help in solving it.”

“富有国家一直对低收入国家的发展建设提供支持。我们在出钱的时候总希望按照我们的方式，履行我们的时间表。我们想在时机合适的时候派自己的专家前往当地。但尤其是在税收领域的很多情况下，这些国家其实有不少受过良好教育的人，他们清楚问题出在哪里，他们不需要我们告诉问题所在，但他们真正需要我们帮忙解决问题。”

Building partnerships 10, he said, establishes better relationships and brings better results.

莫尔表示建立伙伴关系、发展更好的关系，能够带来更好的结果。

As the policy brief puts it,“mentoring is better than training.” Moore said it's not clear how much an improved tax capacity would stem illicit 11 flows of money. He described it as a “very, very contested issue.”

正如报告所言“辅导胜于培训”。莫尔表示目前还不清楚税收能力改进后究竟能在何种多大程度上遏制非法资金流动。他称这是一个非常具有争议、而且是个大难题”。

“We know that there is quite a lot of illicit flows of money from low-income countries. This goes through banks and much of it is suspicious money. It's corruption 12 money. And it ends up someplace in the rich world or in a tax haven 13 world. That's one thing. But that is not all potential taxable income for the government. So, even if you enormously cut down on the illicit flows, you wouldn't necessarily make a big impact on the taxation issue.”

“我们知道有很多非法资金从低收入国家流出。都是通过银行进行，很多都是来路不明的钱，是腐败钱，最后进入了富有国家的某处或某个避税港。这是个问题。但这并不是政府全部的潜在征税来源。因此即使非法资金流动减少，那也不一定对计税问题造成重大影响。”

Several African countries have sharply improved their reputations for tax collections.

有几个非洲国家大大改善了他们在税收方面的声誉。

These include Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.

这些国家是肯尼亚、莫桑比克和坦桑尼亚。

Moore said building tax capacity in low- and middle-income countries is a fashionable subject right now among donors.However, he added that donors often make big commitments, but fail to follow through several years later. One reason is that tax authorities in rich countries are reluctant to release qualified personnel to go work in developing countries because there's so much work to do at home.

莫尔表示在低收入及中等收入国家建设税制如今成了捐助者中谈论的话题。不过他补充捐助方经常做出重大承诺，但几年过去却未见落实。其中一个原因是富有国家的税务当局不愿意把合格的税务人员派到发展中国家，因为在自己国内也有很多事情要做。