分析：跨国公司税负低于10年前

Big multinationals are paying significantly lower tax rates than before the 2008 financial crisis, according to Financial Times analysis showing that a decade of government efforts to cut deficits and reform taxes has left the corporate world largely unscathed.

英国《金融时报》的分析显示，大型跨国公司如今承担的税率比2008年金融危机前低得多，政府10年来努力削减赤字和改革税收基本对企业界毫发无伤。

Companies’ effective tax rates — the proportion of profits that they expect to pay, as stated in their accounts — have fallen 9 per cent (two percentage points) since the financial crisis. This is in spite of a concerted political push to tackle aggressive avoidance.

尽管各国政府在政治上采取了协调措施来应对激进的避税行为，企业的实际税率——它们在账目中列出的预期缴纳的利润比例——自金融危机以来已下降了9%(2个百分点)。

Governments’ cuts to their headline corporate tax rates only explain around half the overall fall, suggesting multinationals are still outpacing attempts to tighten tax collection.

政府削减总体企业税率仅能解释企业税率总下降幅度的一半，这表明跨国公司仍然跑在了政府收紧征税措施努力的前面。

Drawing on 25 years of financial statements, the FT examined the tax rates paid by the world’s 10 biggest public companies by market capitalisation in each of nine sectors. The tax rates reported by the 10 multinationals with the largest offshore cash piles were also examined.

根据25年的财务报表，英国《金融时报》考察了9个行业按市值计算全球十大上市公司支付的税率。英国《金融时报》还考察了10家拥有最大规模离岸现金储备的跨国公司报告的税率。

The results show that the corporate contribution to public finances has fallen since 2008 as a proportion of profits — whether measured by headline rates, reported effective rates, or the rates actually paid to governments. Rules allowing companies to delay when some taxes are paid mean reported effective rates and actual amounts paid can vary substantially in a given year.

结果表明，自2008年以来，从占利润的比例来看，企业对公共财政的贡献下降了——无论是以总体税率、企业报告的实际税率，还是以实际缴纳给政府的税款计算的税率衡量。允许企业延迟缴纳某些税款的规定意味着，企业报告的实际税率与其实际纳税税率在某一年份可能有很大差异。

The longer-term trend is even more pronounced, with effective reported corporate tax rates falling nearly one-third since 2000, from 34 per cent to 24 per cent.

从长期看更加明显，自2000年以来，企业报告的实际税率从34%跌至24%，下降了近三分之一。

“There has been a lot of action and gestures that are very visible but the reality is different. Rate cuts and patent boxes [tax breaks for intellectual property] have been the dominant forces on corporate tax — and that reflects the continued dynamics of tax competition,” said Mihir Desai, professor of finance and law at Harvard university. “Call it a great irony or hypocrisy, but it’s one of the two.”

“有很多行动和姿态是显而易见的，但现实却不尽然。税率降低和‘专利盒’(patent box，给予知识产权的税收优惠)一直是企业税改革的主导力量——而这体现出税收竞争的持续动力，”哈佛大学(Harvard)金融与法律教授米希尔•德赛(Mihir Desai)说。“你可以称其为一种极大的讽刺或伪善，但二者必居其一。”

Since the financial crisis, average reported effective tax rates have fallen around 13 per cent for the largest technology and industrial companies, according to the FT’s research. They have been broadly flat in the health, consumer staples and materials sectors.

英国《金融时报》的研究显示，自金融危机以来，最大的科技和工业企业报告的平均实际税率下降了13%左右。在医疗、消费品和材料行业，企业的平均实际税率则基本持平。

The results highlight how the long downward trend in corporate tax rates set by the countries that make up the OECD continued at a time when taxes on consumers and workers were rising after the financial crisis.

该研究结果突显出，金融危机后，在消费者与工人的税负提高的同时，经合组织(OECD)国家制定的企业税率的长期下降趋势是如何持续的。

Since 2008, countries have cut headline corporate taxes by 5 per cent while governments on average have increased personal taxes by 6 per cent, according to figures from KPMG, the accountancy firm.

会计师事务所毕马威(KPMG)的数据显示，2008年以来，各国将总体企业税削减了5%，而政府却将个人所得税平均提高了6%。

“That’s the process of competition [between governments] and I can’t really ever see it stopping,” said Michael Devereux, professor of business tax at Oxford university. He said the recent US cut to its headline rate was likely to spur more tax competition between governments.

“这是(政府间)竞争的过程，我永远也不会看到它停止，”牛津大学(Oxford)企业税教授迈克尔•德弗罗(Michael Devereux)说。他表示，美国最近下调整体税率，可能会激发各国政府间更多的税收竞争。

More surprising has been the limited impact so far of a decade-long push in the OECD and G20 to simplify a web of national tax rules that enable multinationals to minimise their global tax bills.

更令人惊讶的是，10年来经合组织与20国集团(G20)一直在努力简化各国税收规则网络，使跨国企业能够将全球税收负担降至最低，但到目前为止收效不大。

Pierre Moscovici, EU commissioner for tax, said countries were free to set their own corporate tax rates, but highlighted that international tax reform was needed. “Let’s make no mistake: the headline rate is not what triggers tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. That comes from schemes that facilitate profit shifting.”

欧盟(EU)税务专员皮埃尔•莫斯科维奇(Pierre Moscovici)称，各国可自行制定本国的企业税率，但他强调有必要进行国际税收改革。“我们不要搞错：引发逃税与激进税务筹划的不是总体税率，而是促进利润转移的计划。”

The political desire to tackle this “profit-shifting” has been given more urgency because of the light shed on corporate tax arrangements by large-scale data leaks and political inquiries into the tax affairs of tech groups such as Apple, Google and Amazon.

解决这种“利润转移”的政治愿望变得愈加紧迫，因为大规模的数据泄露以及对苹果(Apple)、谷歌(Google)及亚马逊(Amazon)等科技集团税务的政治调查，让人们关注企业税收制度。

Group level accounts show many big tech companies tend to pay significantly less tax on foreign profits than the money they earn at home. The groups argue they pay all taxes legally required and some have acknowledged the need for tax reform.

企业账目显示，许多大型科技公司为海外利润纳的税，往往比他们为国内利润纳的税少得多。这些集团辩称道，他们缴纳了所有法律规定的税款，一些人也承认有必要进行税收改革。

National laws to implement the OECD’s 15-point action plan to cut aggressive tax avoidance — through so-called base erosion and profit shifting — are starting to come into force. Mr Devereux expects new restrictions on interest charges between countries — clamping down on inter-company loans often used by multinationals to shift profits between jurisdictions — “will show up next year [in the numbers] if it’s going to have any effect”.

经合组织的15点行动计划旨在减少激进的避税行为(通过所谓的侵蚀税基和转移利润)，执行该计划的各国法律已经开始实施。德弗罗预计各国之间对利息费用会有新的限制，目的是打击跨国企业经常用来在不同司法辖区间转移利润的公司间贷款，“如果有作用的话，明年就会(在数字中)体现出来”。

Other initiatives are expected to take longer before they show up in corporate results.

其它措施预计需要更长时间才能在企业的财报中有所显现。

The gap between companies’ reporting of what they expect to pay in tax, and the actual payments as revealed by cash transfers, has also grown because of anomalies in the tax system that encouraged some US companies to park cash or profits overseas during this period.

企业报告的预计纳税额与现金转移所揭示的实际纳税额之间的差距也有所扩大，因为扭曲的税收制度鼓励一些美国企业在此期间将现金或利润存放在海外。

By the end of last year US companies had built up almost $2.6tn in untaxed cash held offshore, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.

美国税收与经济政策研究所(Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy)的数据显示，截至去年年底，美国企业在海外已积累了近2.6万亿美元的未纳税现金。

The US overhauled its tax rules in December, hitting companies’ offshore cash with a 15.5 per cent one-off levy. It also lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. The one-off levy could net Washington about $400bn in tax revenues but will also save companies up to $500bn compared to the headline corporate tax rate that applied when the profits were earned, the FT estimates.

去年12月，美国对其税收规则进行了全面改革，以15.5%的一次性征税打击企业的离岸现金。美国还将企业税率从35%降至21%。英国《金融时报》估计，一次性征税可能为华盛顿方面带来约4000亿美元的税收，但与利润产生时适用的企业税率相比，这也将为企业节省高达5000亿美元的税款。