科普！避税合法，逃税有罪！（双语）

临近岁末，没想到大瓜一个接着一个，吃瓜群众表示惊掉了一地下巴……最新爆出的是某网红带货主播被追缴税款、加收滞纳金并处罚款共计13.41亿元，听说这几天已经掀起了各平台主播补缴税款潮……据报道，12月22日，北京市、上海市、浙江省、广东省等多地税务局官网相继发布通告，要求此前尚未关注自身涉税问题或自查整改不到位的明星艺人、网络主播等，抓紧对照税法及有关通知要求进行自查，并于2021年底前向税务部门主动报告和纠正涉税问题。通知下发后，对仍拒不自查自纠或者自查自纠不彻底的，税务部门将依法依规严肃处理。

依法纳税是公民应尽的义务，可以合理避税（tax avoidance），决不可故意逃税（tax evasion）。关于这两个概念，小编找到一篇科普文，与大家一起跟随热点学英语。

 

Although they sound similar 'tax avoidance' and 'tax evasion' are radically different. Tax avoidance lowers your tax bill by structuring your transactions so that you reap the largest tax benefits. Tax avoidance is completely legal—and extremely wise.

“避税”与“逃税”，虽然听起来相似，但完全不同。避税可以通过精心安排应税交易的方式降低你的税单税额，让你获得最大程度的税收优惠。避税是完全合法的，而且极度明智。

Tax evasion, on the other hand, is an attempt to reduce your tax liability by deceit, subterfuge, or concealment. Tax evasion is a crime.

相反，逃税是企图通过欺诈、诡计或隐瞒等方式降低应纳税额。逃税是犯罪。

How do you know when shrewd planning—tax avoidance—goes too far and crosses the line to become illegal tax evasion? Often the distinction turns upon whether actions were taken with fraudulent intent.

如何判断精明的避税规划是否过度操作，以至越过合法的界限，成为违法的逃税呢？二者的差别通常在于采取行动时是否怀有欺骗意图。

Business owners often find themselves subject to more scrutiny than wage-earners with a similar level of income. Why? Because a business owner has more options to avoid tax, both legally and illegally. Here are some of the most common criminal activities in violations of the tax law:

企业主常常发现，与相似收入水平的工薪族相比，自己更容易受到税务部门的仔细审查。这是为什么呢？因为企业主有更多合法和违法的避免纳税的方式。以下是一些最常见的违反税法的犯罪活动：

• Deliberately under-reporting or omitting income. This is self-explanatory: concealing income is fraudulent. Examples include a business owner's failure to report a portion of the day's receipts or a landlord failing to report rent payments.

• 故意少报或瞒报收入。隐匿收入是欺骗行为，这一点不言自明。例如企业主瞒报一天的部分收入，或房东瞒报房租收益。

• Keeping two sets of books and making false entries in books and records. Engaging in accounting irregularities, such as a business's failure to keep adequate records, or a discrepancy between amounts reported on a corporation's return and amounts reported on its financial statements, generally demonstrates fraudulent intent.

• 设立两本账，在账本和账务记录中作假。参与会计违规——例如企业未合规记账，或企业利润与企业财务报表中报告的数额存在差异——通常是有欺骗意图的表现。

• Claiming false or overstated deductions on a return. These range from claiming unsubstantiated charitable deductions to overstating travel expenses. It can also include paying your children or spouse for work that they did not perform. The IRS is always vigilant when it comes to inflated deductions from pass-through entities.

• 对一笔收益申报虚假或夸大的税收减免。这包括从申报未经证实的慈善减免到虚报旅行花费等违法行为，还可能包括为你的子女或配偶并未做过的工作给他们支付酬劳。美国国税局通常对税赋转由合伙人缴纳的公司所申报的高额税收减免十分警觉。

• Claiming personal expenses as business expenses. This is an easy trap to fall into because often assets, such as a car or a computer, will have both business and personal use. Proper record-keeping will go a long way in preventing a finding of tax fraud.

• 将个人开支申报为业务开支。这是一个很容易犯下的错误，因为很多资产常常既有商务用途又有个人用途——例如车或电脑。合规记录对避免被认定税务欺诈有很大帮助。

• Hiding or transferring assets or income. This type of fraud can take a variety of forms, from simple concealment of funds in a bank account to improper allocations between taxpayers. For example, improperly allocating income to a related taxpayer who is in a lower tax bracket, such as where a corporation makes distributions to the controlling shareholder's children, is likely to be considered tax fraud.

• 隐藏或转移资产或收入。这种类型的欺诈可能存在多种方式，从简单地将资金藏匿在银行账户中，到在纳税人之间不合规分配。例如，违规将收入分配给一位税率较低的相关纳税人——比如一家公司将收益分配给控股股东的子女——很可能被认定为税务欺诈。

• Engaging in a 'sham transaction.' You can't reduce or avoid income tax liability simply by labeling a transaction as something it is not. For example, if payments by a corporation to its stockholders are in fact dividends, calling them 'interest' or otherwise attempting to disguise the payments as interest will not entitle the corporation to an interest deduction. It is the substance, not the form, of the transaction that determines its taxability.

• 进行“虚假交易”。你不能仅仅给一项交易贴个标签改头换面，就想减少或免除该笔收入的应纳税额。例如，如果企业支付给股东的其实是股息，却称其为利息或试图将其伪装成利息，这样的做法并不会使企业有权获得利息减税。决定交易可税性的是一项交易的实质，而非形式。

Minimizing taxes requires skillful tax planning

将纳税额最小化需要熟练的税务筹划

Tax avoidance requires advance planning. Nearly all tax strategies use one (or more) of these strategies to structure transactions to obtain the lowest possible marginal tax rate:

• minimizing taxable income;

• maximizing tax deductions and tax credits;

• controlling the timing of income and deductions.

避税需要提前规划。几乎所有的税务策略都会采用以下一种（或多种）手段去构建交易，以获得尽可能低的边际税率：

• 尽可能减少应税收入；

• 尽可能增加税收减免和税收抵免；

• 控制收入和减免的时间。

Forecasting income and expenses is critically important. Effective tax planning requires solid estimates of your personal and business income for the next few years. Several years of income/expense projections are necessary because many tax planning strategies that lower taxes at one income level can result in an increase if income raises in the coming years. 

预测收入和支出至关重要。有效的税务筹划需要对未来数年的个人及企业收入作出可靠的估计。几年的收入和支出预测是必须的，因为很多在一个收入水平上减少纳税额的税务策略在未来几年收入水平提升的情况下反而会导致纳税增加。

You will want to avoid having the 'right' tax plan made 'wrong' by erroneous income projections. You should already be projecting your sales revenues, income, and cash flow for general business planning purposes, so you should have much of this information available for tax planning. While estimates by their nature are inexact, the more accurate you can be, the better your planning will be.

你不会希望不准确的收入预测使“正确”的税务筹划变得“错误”。你应该已经在为常规的商务规划目的而预测你的销售收益、收入和现金流，因此，你应该拥有很多此类信息可用于税务筹划。尽管估算本质上是不准确的，但你估算得越准，你的税务筹划就会做得越好。

Deductions and credits reduce your taxes

减免和抵免可以降低你的纳税额

Your tax planning goal is to pay the least amount of tax that is legally possible. You can reduce your ultimate tax bill by attacking on two fronts.

你的税务筹划目标是在法律许可的范围内缴纳尽可能少的税款。你可以从两方面采取行动，以减少最终的税单税额。

• First, take full advantage of every available deduction—both business and personal—to reduce your taxable income.

• 首先，充分利用每一项可用的税收减免（企业和个人）以减少你的应税收入。

• Then, once determine the tentative tax due, claim every tax credit that is available to you.

• 其次，一旦确定了暂定应缴税款，申请每一项你适用的税收抵免。

Think ahead

提前想好

When you want to reduce the amount of tax that you owe, you will find that tax credits are nearly always better than tax deductions. 

当你想减少应纳税额时，你会发现，税收抵免几乎总是比税收减免要好。

A credit reduces your tax bill dollar-for-dollar, whereas the value of a deduction is affected by your marginal tax rate. This is an important principle to remember when evaluating whether it is better to claim a credit or a deduction when both are available for a given expense.

税收抵免可以一美元一美元地减少你的税单额，而税收减免的价值会受你的边际税率影响。当一项既定开支既可以申请抵免也可以申请减免，在评估哪一种做法更好时，要记住这一重要原则。

翻译：王冰

审订：WE

(Credit: salesfactor.org)

(Credit: salesfactor.org)