欧洲 希腊税收

　　A national sport no more

　　逃漏税再也不是全民运动

　　Greek tax dodgers are being outed

　　希腊严惩逃漏税者

　　Greek officials used to shrug off tax evasion as “a national sport”. The finance ministry 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 holders of Swiss bank accounts are under uncomfortable scrutiny. 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 adamant that to publish the list was in the public interest. (Many hard-up, law abiding Greeks would agree.) He argues that reforms of taxation have not gone far enough, despite recent efforts by the conservative-led coalition government of Antonis Samaras to pursue 54,000 taxpayers 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 legitimate 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 socialist 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 prosecutor, told Mr Venizelos an investigation 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 technocrat, 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 shredded.

　　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。