经济学人:严惩逃漏税者 希腊富豪们的好日子即将终结

 　　Europe Greek taxation¹

　　欧洲 希腊税收

　　A national sport no more

　　逃漏税再也不是全民运动

　　Greek tax dodgers² are being outed

　　希腊严惩逃漏税者

　　Greek officials used to shrug³ off tax evasion⁴ as “a national sport”. The finance ministry⁵ focused on raising revenue through indirect taxes such as value-added tax. Meanwhile income from a flourishing black economy financed the building of second homes on the islands, in Greece’s Arcadian heartland or moved into bank accounts abroad.

　　希腊官员曾经将逃漏税看做一场“全民运动”，对其并不重视。财政部主要通过增值税之类的间接税收来增加收入。同时，繁荣的黑市经济创造的收入一部分走入希腊田园牧歌般的中部的二手房市场，一部分流入境外银行账户。

　　Those days are over. As Greece struggles to put its public finances in order, property owners have been hit by a volley of new taxes and holders⁶ of Swiss bank accounts are under uncomfortable scrutiny⁷. Hot Doc, an investigative magazine, recently published a list of 2,000 Greeks who kept accounts at a Geneva branch of HSBC.

　　这样的日子一去不复返了。当希腊挣扎着稳定公共金融秩序的时候，房产主受到了各种新税种的连番轰炸，瑞士银行持股人也处于监控之下，无法安心。调查性杂志《热门档案》最近公布了一份名单，曝光了2000位在汇丰银行日内瓦分行开户的希腊富人。

　　Costas Vaxevanis, its editor, is adamant⁸ that to publish the list was in the public interest. (Many hard-up, law abiding⁹ Greeks would agree.) He argues that reforms of taxation have not gone far enough, despite recent efforts by the conservative-led coalition¹⁰ government of Antonis Samaras to pursue 54,000 taxpayers¹¹ who sent 22 billion ($28.5 billion) abroad in 2009-11. About 15,000 people transferred funds that were not declared to the tax authorities; the government now hopes to rake in an extra 2.25 billion in taxes.

　　杂志总编辑哥斯达斯·瓦瑟瓦尼斯坚称，公布这份名单是保护公众利益。（许多经济拮据并遵纪守法的希腊人会认同这一点）。 他声称，尽管最近保守派的安东尼斯·萨马拉斯领导的联合政府做出了许多努力，追查在2009至2011年间将220亿欧元（合285亿美元）转移到国外的54,000位纳税人，但税制改革还远远不够深入。大约有15,000人转移到境外的资产是未向政府申报的资产，希腊政府现在则希望税收收入快速增加22.5亿欧元。

　　Mr Vaxevanis is due to be tried in Athens on November 1st on charges of violating data-privacy laws by publishing the list that contains names of politicians, shipowners and businesspeople. He accepts that some accounts held legitimate¹² funds. Yet many of the 200 people contacted by the Hot Doc team either claimed the list was a fake or begged him not to publish their names, he says.

　　瓦瑟瓦尼斯预计会在11月1日因“违反数据保密法，擅自公布包含政客、船商及企业老板姓名名单”受审。他承认一些账户持有的是合法资金。然而，他还说，《热门文章》杂志团队取得联系的200人，或声称名单是伪造的，或乞求他不要公布他的名单。

　　Those most embarrassed by the revelations are two former socialist¹³ finance ministers, George Papaconstantinou, and his successor, Evangelos Venizelos, now leader of Pasok (the PanHellenic Socialist Movement). In 2010 Mr Papaconstantinou requested the list, put together by a former HSBC employee, from Christine Lagarde, then his counterpart in France. He asked Ioannis Kapeleris, the head of SDOE, the Greek financial police, to check out ten names. Although they turned out to be suspected tax evaders, Mr Papaconstantinou never pursued the matter. The CDs containing the names and a copy made on a USB stick were “mislaid”, Mr Papaconstantinou told parliament. The next head of SDOE, Ioannis Diotis, a former public prosecutor¹⁴, told Mr Venizelos an investigation¹⁵ into the stolen list could face legal problems. The matter was quietly dropped.

　　在此次揭发事件中最为难堪的是两位社运党籍前财政部长：乔治·帕帕康斯坦提诺及其继任者、泛希腊社会主义运动党现任领导人伊万格勒斯·维尼则罗斯。2012年，帕帕康斯坦提诺曾向法国财政部长克里斯蒂娜·拉加德索要过这份由一位前恒生银行员工制成的名单。还曾要求希腊独立税务调查组——相当于希腊的财政警察——负责人扬尼斯·卡佩勒瑞斯调查其中的10个人。尽管调查结果显示这些人有逃漏税嫌疑，帕帕康斯坦提诺却从未追究下去。他告诉议会，记载名字的CD及装有副本的USB存储器“不知道被放在哪儿了”。继任的希腊独立税务调查组负责人、前检察官扬尼斯·戴奥蒂斯告诉维尼则罗斯，调查丢失的名单可能会遇到一些法律问题。此事因此就被悄然搁置了。

　　Yannis Stournaras, the current finance minister, a technocrat¹⁶, has asked Paris to send another copy of the list, which dates from 2007. Yet it may still be hard to catch up with tax evaders. According to Mr Kapeleris, delays in digitising tax records have meant that many documents going back more than five years are shredded¹⁷.

　　现任财政部长雅尼斯·斯托纳拉斯是位技术官员。他要求巴黎再给他提供一份2007年以来的名单副本。然而，想抓住那些逃漏税者还是很难。据卡佩勒瑞斯说，由于实现税务记录数字化过程落后而缓慢，5年多以前的许多文件都被粉碎了。

　　The sheer scale of Greek tax evasion angers the European Union and IMF officials trying to knock Greece’s economy back into shape. One recent study suggested up to 30 billion of revenue goes uncollected every year. Ms Lagarde, now the IMF managing director, has said publicly she cares more about village schoolchildren in Niger than Athenians “who are trying to escape tax all the time.” Mr Vaxevanis’s trial will be closely watched.

　　希腊大规模的逃漏税激怒了欧盟及国际货币基金组织里那些尝试将希腊经济扳回正轨的官员。最近一份研究表明，希腊每年会流失约300亿欧元的税收收入。现担任国际货币基金组织总裁的拉加德女士公开表示，相比起“一直尝试偷漏税的”雅典人来说，她更关心尼日尔的农村学龄儿童。对瓦瑟瓦尼斯的审判将会受到密切关注。

1 taxation   

n.征税，税收，税金

参考例句：

• He made a number of simplifications in the taxation system.他在税制上作了一些简化。
• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。

2 dodgers   

n.躲闪者，欺瞒者( dodger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a crackdown on fare dodgers on trains 对火车逃票者的严厉打击
• But Twain, Howells, and James were jeeringly described by Mencken as "draft-dodgers". 不过吐温、豪威尔斯和詹姆斯都是被门肯讥诮地叫做“逃避兵役的人。” 来自辞典例句

3 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。

4 evasion   

n.逃避，偷漏(税)

参考例句：

• The movie star is in prison for tax evasion.那位影星因为逃税而坐牢。
• The act was passed as a safeguard against tax evasion.这项法案旨在防止逃税行为。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

7 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

8 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

9 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

12 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

13 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

14 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

16 technocrat   

n.技术人员，技术官僚

参考例句：

• He is a distant technocrat who is unable to connect with ordinary voters.作为一个冷淡的技术官僚，他不能做到与普通选民息息相通。
• Jack Lew,the new budget director,is the quintessential technocrat.新预算主管杰克·卢就是一个典型的技术官僚。

17 shredded   

shred的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Serve the fish on a bed of shredded lettuce. 先铺一层碎生菜叶，再把鱼放上，就可以上桌了。
• I think Mapo beancurd and shredded meat in chilli sauce are quite special. 我觉得麻婆豆腐和鱼香肉丝味道不错。 来自《简明英汉词典》