外刊阅读｜如何向富人征税？原文：How to tax billionaresTHE RICH are different from othe
r people. They have more money and, in most places, they pay much
less tax.Going byone broad definition of income that combines co
nsumption and someone’s change in net worth, America’s best-heele
d pay just a few cents on every dollar of their fortunes. Lately,
those fortunes have ballooned, thanks to a soaring stockmarket.
One study found that unrealised capital gains account for $6trn o
f the $11trn in wealth held by the richest Americans. Since 2023,
as the artificial-intelligence frenzy has fuelled demand for bot
h Nvidia’s GPUs and its shares, the chipmaker’s founder, Jensen H
uang, made more than $100bn. But until he sells some of his stock
s, all that money is off-limits to the taxman.Go by:根据，按照英文释义:be
or act in accordance with;例: Go by this rule and you''ll be safeBe
st-heeled:最富有的人，家财万贯的人，同well-heeledfrenzy:[''frenzi]未实现资本收益，Unreal
ised capital gains:未变现收益Off-limits: 禁止入内的，不许谈论的，禁区Taxman:税务人员，收税员
n.狂乱，狂暴同义词:rage，madness，maniaCash-strapped governments want to ge
t their hands on a slice of these riches. Next year Australia wil
l start taxing unrealised gains in employee pension-fund accounts
with balances of more than A$3m ($2m). As part of his re-electio
n campaign, President Joe Biden is promising to find $500bn over
ten years for social programmes by charging a 25% tax on the unre
alisedcapital gains of individuals who, like Mr Huang and 10,000
other Americans, are worth $100m or more.It is easy to understand
why the world’s non-multimillionaires may want to soak the very
rich. It is equally easy to grasp the appeal for governments, whi
ch the wealthy are playing for fools by coming up with clever way
s to live in the lap of luxury without ever realising any capital
gains.Cash-straped:经济困难的，缺乏资金的soak:[souk]吸入，浸透英文释义:rip off;ask a
n unreasonable price余额balance:the lap of luxury:奢华，极度富裕或舒适物质生活的状态
Taxes should be simple to administer and collect. Ideally, they s
hould also raise revenue while distorting behaviouras little as p
ossible. Taxing unrealised gains fails on each of these counts. C
alculating someone’s net worth is nightmarishly complicated even
once, at their death, let alone every year. America’s Internal Re
venue Service took 12 years to put a value on Michael Jackson’s e
state. France, Sweden and a few other European countries that hav
e tried to levy wealth taxes have abandoned their efforts after g
enerating lots of administrative headaches but little actual reve
nue.Administer：[di''sto:rt]v.治理，管理nightmarishly:adv.噩梦般地distort: [
di''sto:rt]v.使失真，使变形Put avalue on:为…估价Taxing unrealised gains woul
d also cause wild swings in the liabilities of people who own vol
atile assets, including Mr Huang and his Nvidia shares. MrBiden’s
proposal, which assesses the tax over five years, smooths out so
me of this volatility. But some taxpayers would still fail to get
a rebate for their unrealised losses. That could discourage ange
l investors and other risk-takers from backing promising ventures
whose stratospheric valuations could suddenly collapse, and whic
h can be hard to price. In America taxing unrealised gains may al
so be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is about to rule in a c
ase in which the plaintiffs claim that a one-off levy on foreign
investments in 2017 was illegal because it taxed their unrealised
gains. Even if the justices issue a narrow ruling that leaves th
e principle intact, Mr Biden’s idea will be challenged.swing :[sw
In]n./v.摆动，秋千Smooth out: 消除，解决Risk-taker: 冒险者stratospheric:[.stra
ete''sferik]adj.平流程的，指非常高的，比较大的volatile.adj.已变的，不稳定的rebate:折扣，回扣pl
aintiff:原告One-off:一次性的disposable也有一次性之意intact: [in''taekt]adj.完整无缺
的，完好无损的What, then, are the tax authorities to do? In America they
could start by ending the rule that lets inheritors reset the cl
ock for capital-gains each time someone dies. This provision of t
he tax code, called “step-up in basis”, was introduced in 1921, f
ive years after estate taxes, which are assessed on the market va
lue of assets at the owner’s death. The goal was to avoid double
taxation. If heirs paid estate tax on this fair value, they shoul
d not also pay tax on any further capital gains.This rationale lo
oks flimsy now that the biggest estates are built not on earned i
ncome, which would have been taxed throughout an estate-builder’s
life, but on assets’ appreciation, which was not. Heirs who get
rich thanks to their benefactor’s buy, borrow and die are therefo
re treated very differently from those who inherit a fortune amas
sed out of taxed income.inheritor: [in''heriter]n. 继承人,继任者同义词有:hei
r，successorbenefactor:[''benifaekter]n.捐助者，恩人基本原理，基础理论rationale:fl
imsy: [''flmzi]adj.没有价值的，不足信的amass:(大量)积累，积聚Scrapping step-up in b
asis could yield perhaps a quarter of the $500bn that Mr Biden ho
pes to get from his wealth tax, at a far lower administrative cos
t. Taxing capital gains at death would raise the same again. He c
ould realise much of the rest by closing other loopholes, notably
the “carried interest” provision which lets buy-out barons pay capital-gains tax rather than (usually higher) income tax on their private-equity firms’ investment profits. Going after unrealised gains is easy to understand and hence good politics. But it is bad economics.scrape:削去，蹭破;刮loophole:漏洞，枪眼同义词有:shave，pareGo after:追求，追逐baron:大亨，巨头同义词有:magnatehence:因此缘由 |
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