葡萄牙为打击逃税奖励豪华汽车

The secret to good citizenship, Portuguese tax authorities believe, could lie in giving away luxury cars.

葡萄牙税收当局认为，造就好公民的秘诀可能在于赠送豪华汽车。

In April, they will begin holding weekly lotteries in which 60 “top-range cars” a year will be offered as prizes to consumers who do their civic duty by asking cafés, restaurants, car mechanics and other businesses for receipts that include their personal tax number. The aim is to enlist ordinary citizens in combating tax evasion, unfair competition and the black economy, estimated in Portugal to be the equivalent of almost a fifth of official national output.

今年4月，他们将开始每周抽奖，每年将送出60辆“顶级汽车”，以奖励那些履行公民义务——向咖啡厅、餐厅、汽车维修车厂等企业索要含有其个人税收号码的发票——的消费者。此举的目的是号召普通公民打击逃税、不公平竞争以及黑色经济。据估计，葡萄牙黑色经济的规模相当于官方全国产出的近五分之一。

By converting sales receipts into lottery tickets, the government believes it can clamp down on tax dodgers as part of an effort to meet tough deficit targets set under the 78bn bailout deal.

葡萄牙政府认为，把销售发票变成彩票能够打击偷税者，而此举对实现780亿欧元的纾困协议为其设定的严格赤字目标也是有益的。

Paulo Núncio, secretary of state for fiscal affairs, is confident that offering people the chance to win a luxury car will lift the number of sales transactions communicated to the tax authorities by 50 per cent this year, with about 2bn more invoices being registered than last year.

葡萄牙财务国务秘书保罗•农西奥(Paulo Nuncio)相信，给人们提供赢得豪车的机会，将使得今年向税收部门申报的销售交易的数量增加50%，报税发票将比去年多出约20亿张。

The cost to the taxpayer of buying the cars – unofficially estimated at about 90,000 each – will be far outweighed by the increased tax revenue from previously undeclared earnings, says the government.

葡萄牙政府表示，纳税人为这些汽车付出的成本——根据非官方估算，每辆车约为9万欧元——远不及将产生的未申报交易的税收增加额。

But the “cars-for-tax data” scheme has been greeted with a host of objections, ranging from wounded national pride to concerns about pollution.

然而“以车换税数据”计划遭到很多人的反对，理由包括国家自豪感受损，也有对污染的担忧。

Mr Núncio has had to field complaints that using the temptation of high-end cars to “turn citizens into tax inspectors” does not befit a modern European democracy.

人们抱怨利用高端汽车的诱惑将“公民变成税收检查员”的做法与欧洲现代民主不符，而农西奥不得不想办法去平息人们的情绪。

The Portuguese scheme drew its inspiration from a similar lottery run in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Comparable schemes are used in Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Taiwan.

葡萄牙的这项计划是从巴西圣保罗州推出的类似彩票活动中获得灵感的。阿根廷、哥伦比亚、波多黎各和台湾也采取过类似做法。

“This measure may be a little damaging to our dignity,” said Carlos Loureiro, a Lisbon-based tax partner with Deloitte. “But what really reflects our level of civilisation is . . . that so much income goes undeclared, rather than the measure designed to deal with it.”

“这种措施可能稍稍有损我们的尊严，”德勤(Deloitte)驻里斯本税务合伙人卡洛斯•洛雷罗(Carlos Loureiro)表示，“但真正影响我们文明水平的是……这么多收入没有申报，而不是这项应对措施。”

Opponents of the scheme say it sends out wrong messages, promoting imports of foreign-made cars in a country trying to build an export-led recovery. They also say it is damaging efforts to increase public transport use and cut pollution.

反对该计划的人士表示，此举传递了错误的信息——在葡萄牙这样一个试图以出口拉动复苏的国家中会促进外国汽车的进口。他们还表示，此举将破坏增加公共交通使用和减少污染的努力。