The European Commission has made a pig’s ear of its proposed financial transaction tax. But it is not too late to salvage something from the mess and reform taxation in a way that makes the financial system safer and more efficient.
欧盟委员会（European Commission，简称欧委会）拟推出金融交易税，这是一个错误的决定。但在乱局中挽回一些东西、改革税收制度、提高金融系统的安全性和效率，为时还不算太晚。
The latest blow to the commission’s plans came from the European Council’s legal service. The FTT will apply to only 11 of the EU’s 28 member states. The remaining 17, including the UK, decided they did not want to introduce the tax. But the law was drafted in such a way that it still caught some transactions in countries that opted out. The lawyers condemned the FTT’s extraterritorial reach.
欧委会金融交易税计划遭受的最新打击来自欧盟理事会(Council of the European Union)的法律部门。金融交易税将只适用于欧盟(EU) 28个成员国中的11个成员国。其余17国（包括英国）决定不征收该税。但法律草案仍然牵涉到一些非征税国的金融交易。律师们对金融交易税的跨境管辖表示谴责。
But this is not the FTT’s only defect. The tax was partly justified as a way of discouraging banks from engaging in risky activities. But it misses this target because the source of Europe’s financial crisis was banks not financial markets. Indeed, Europe would have a healthier financial system if, like the US, it was less “bankcentric” and more capital market-friendly. Sadly, because of a long-held prejudice, the commission came up with a levy that would gum up markets but not tax banks at all.
但这不是金融交易税的唯一缺陷。征收此税，一定程度上是为了防止银行从事高风险活动。但金融交易税实现不了这个目标，因为欧洲金融危机的根源在于银行，而不是金融市常事实上，如果欧洲像美国一样不那么以银行为中心、而是更加亲近资本市场，那么欧洲的金融体系会更为健康。可遗憾的是，在根深蒂固的偏见的驱使下，欧委会抛出了一项将会扰乱市尝却丝毫未增加银行税负的税收。
The commission may still find some way of rejigging its tax so it is no longer illegal. But it would be better to ditch it and look at better options for taxing the financial system. There are three: a hot money levy; a financial activities tax; and phasing out the tax bias of debt.
欧委会或许仍可设法调整税收方案，使之符合法律。但放弃金融交易税、考虑对金融体系征税的更合理方法，才是理想之眩选择有三种：征收热钱税；征收金融活动税；以及逐步消除税收对债务的偏袒。
First, a hot money levy, otherwise known as a bank levy, would deter banks from relying too much on short-term wholesale funds by taxing their usage. Such money is typically cheaper than deposits but it also vanishes rapidly in a crisis. Indeed, reliance on easy-come-easy-go money was a big reason so many banks needed bailouts five years ago.
首先，热钱税（或称银行税）对短期批发资金的使用征税，从而减少银行对它的依赖。这些资金的使用成本通常低于存款，但在发生危机时会迅速销声匿迹。事实上，依赖这些“来得快去得也快”的资金，是5年前大批银行需要纾困的一大原因。
About half of the EU’s countries – including Britain, Germany and France – already have some type of bank levy, according to KPMG, the business services company. In the UK, for example, banks have to pay a tax based on the size of their wholesale funding. Long-term borrowing is subject to a lower rate than short-term money.
企业服务公司毕马威(KPMG)表示，包括英国、德国和法国在内，约一半欧盟成员国已然设立了某种形式的银行税。例如在英国，银行必须根据其批发资金的规模来缴纳相应的税。长期借款的税率低于短期借款。
The snag is that there is a patchwork of different levies. Britain raises ￡2.5bn a year from its tax. That is about five times as much as France and two and a half times as much as Germany, relative to the size of their banking industries. It is not just that the rates are different; the nature of what is being taxed varies between countries.
麻烦在于，各国的银行税并不统一。英国每年的银行税收入为25亿英镑，银行税收入金额相对银行业规模的比例大约是法国的5倍、德国的2.5倍。在征收银行税的国家里，不但税率有异，被征税对象的性质也不尽相同。
Rather than trying to revive the FTT, the commission should try to put some order into different countries’ bank levies. Strict harmonisation would not be necessary. But agreeing common principles and bands within which the tax rate is set would create a more level playing field. It would also be good to encourage more countries to adopt such a tax.
欧委会不应将金融交易税重新提上日程，而是应当尝试为各国的银行税注入秩序。严格的统一是不必要的，但商定共同的原则和税率区间，将带来一个更加公平的环境。鼓励更多国家采纳银行税也将有所帮助。
As Dan Neidle, a tax partner at Clifford Chance, the law firm, puts it: “The bank levy is a workable tax but the FTT isn’t.”
如高伟绅律师事务所(Clifford Chance)税务部合伙人丹·尼德尔(Dan Neidle)所说：“银行税是可行的，金融交易税不可行。”
Second, the commission should look again at a financial activities tax, best known by its acronym: Fat. The financial services industry is currently exempt from value added tax. In an ideal world, it would be treated like any other industry. But for technical reasons it is tricky to apply VAT to finance.
其次，欧委会应当再次考虑金融活动税（financial activities tax，缩写为Fat）。金融服务业目前不用缴纳增值税。理想的情况下，它应得到与其他行业同等的待遇。但出于一些技术原因，对金融业征收增值税并非易事。
The Fat would tax a bank’s earnings and the money it pays employees – on the theory that the sum of these is value added by another name. Taxing bank profits and bankers’ earnings would be popular. But it would only be worth doing if it had international support. Otherwise, those countries imposing such a tax would put their banks at a disadvantage to those that do not.
金融活动税对银行的利润和支付给员工的薪资征税，其理论依据是二者之和其实就是增加值。对银行利润和银行家收入征税，将受到人们的欢迎。但只有得到国际支持，金融活动税才值得推行。否则，比起不征税的国家，征税的国家会将本国银行置于不利的境地中。
Finally, the commission should look at ways to remove the tax bias of debt. In most countries, companies can deduct interest payments before calculating the profit that is subject to corporation tax. But they cannot do the same for dividends. This gives companies an incentive to leverage themselves up – which then makes them and the whole economy vulnerable to shocks. The three main culprits in the most recent financial crisis were banks, property developers and private equity groups.
最后，欧委会应当设法消除税收对债务融资的偏袒。在大多数国家，企业可用利息支出来抵扣公司税应税利润，但不能用股息来抵扣。这就给了企业增加杠杆的动力，反过来又使它们和整体经济难以抵御动荡的冲击。最近一次金融危机的三大罪魁祸首是银行、房地产开发商和私人股本集团。
One solution to this problem would be to phase out the tax-deductibility of interest payments and make compensating cuts in corporation tax rates, so the taxman does not take more money from companies. Such a reform would give banks and other companies a bigger incentive to rely on equity rather than debt. Again, it would be best to make this change on an international level if possible.
解决这个问题的一个办法是，逐步取消以利息支出抵扣应税利润的机制，并相应下调公司税率、以免增加企业税负。这种改革将更好地激励银行和其他企业依赖股本而非债务。还是那句话，如果可能的话，最好是在国际范围内实行这种改革。
These three reforms are not mutually exclusive. They would all improve the financial system, unlike the commission’s misguided FTT.
这三项改革并不是互斥的。与欧委会欠考虑的金融交易税不同，这些改革都会改善金融体系。
The writer is editor at large at Reuters News |
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