考研英语阅读篇章：巴西税收的不确定性

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考研英语阅读篇章：巴西税收的不确定性

　　Brazilian firms fight huge and unpredictable tax bills

　　2012年年中，巴西首富埃克•巴蒂斯塔的商业帝国受到冲击。他所控股的巴西油气公司称井源产油比预期少。到年底，巴蒂斯塔的资产减少了三分之二，变为124亿美元。目前，他又遭受一个打击。1月8日，他的采矿公司MMX被要求为其2007年的活动支付38亿雷亚尔(折合18亿美元)的账单，包括公司收入税，社会保险，利息以及罚款。

　　IN MID-2012 Eike Batista, until recently Brazil’s richest man, saw his empire battered. OGX, an oil firm he controls, said its wells were less productive than it had thought. By the end of the year Mr Batista’s fortune fell by two-thirds, to $12.4 billion. Now he is under attack on another flank. On January 8th MMX, his mining company, said it had been handed a bill relating to its activities in 2007, for 3.8 billion reais ($1.8 billion) for corporate income tax and social security, plus interest and fines.

　　MMX公司坚持将同这些“完全毫无根据”的收费抗争。同当地税务机构有大额数目争议的巴西公司又多了一家。在前一天，巴西一家化妆品直销公司- 大自然公司宣称对6.3亿雷亚尔的联邦销售税有异议。十二月，巴西纸浆公司Fibria以及物流公司Santos Brasil也分别被追讨17亿雷亚尔与3.3亿雷亚尔的公司所得税。四家公司均没有漏缴，也宣称不可能支付。

　　MMX says it will be fighting these “totally baseless” charges. That adds it to a growing list of Brazilian firms battling the tax authorities over huge sums. The previous day Natura, a direct-sales cosmetics firm, said it was disputing 630m reais in federal sales taxes. In December Fibria, a paper-and-pulp firm, and Santos Brasil, a port operator, said they were being chased for 1.7 billion and 330m reais, respectively, in corporate income tax and social security. None of the four companies has made loss provisions; all say they regard the risk of having to pay as remote.

　　巴西的税收争议就如同比基尼或者桑巴一样普遍。国家控股的石油巨头-巴西石油公司正在同一项与1999年到2002年租借石油平台一事相关的价值48亿雷亚尔的账单抗争;采矿巨头Vale同海外收入税总价305亿雷亚尔的4项账单以及30亿雷亚尔版税抗争。以上两家公司同税务机关的抗争持续多年，最后诉诸公堂。圣保罗一家法律事务所-马托斯费里奥律师事务所的律师Andrea Bazzo说“争议数额越来越大，原因很简单，因为巴西的大公司越来越多。这些事件也变得越来越普遍，因为变成电子存档之后更易查出错误。”犯错痛苦而简单。世界银行认为巴西的税收名目是全世界最复杂的。

　　Tax disputes are as Brazilian as string bikinis or samba. Petrobras, a state-controlled oil giant, is fighting a bill for 4.8 billion reais relating to the leasing of oil platforms between 1999 and 2002. Vale, a mining giant, is fighting four bills totalling 30.5 billion reais for tax on its foreign earnings and another for 3 billion reais in royalties. Both battles have lasted years and ended up in court. The amounts under dispute are getting bigger, says Andrea Bazzo of Mattos Filho Advogados, a São Paulo law firm, simply because there are more big Brazilian firms. They are more common because a shift to electronic filing makes errors easier to spot. Erring is painfully easy: the World Bank rates Brazil’s tax code as the world’s most complicated.

　　另一家法律事务所Pinheiro Neto的律师 Luiz Peroba 称：“税务工作者一旦发现可能的错误便立刻发布违规报告，而不是直接同公司联系。即使收益并未减少，解释并不成立，也如此操作。”大自然公司说到最近一期 同公司结构有关的争议。其商业与工业分公司自从1994年分开一直没变，但2005年却收到了相似的账单，这一争议最后胜诉。

　　Tax officials generally issue infraction notices as soon as they spot a potential mistake, says Luiz Peroba of Pinheiro Neto, another law firm, rather than discussing it directly with the firm. This is true even if there has been no loss of revenue—and even if their interpretation is unlikely to prevail. Natura says its latest dispute relates to its company structure, with a split between its commercial and industrial arms, which has not changed since 1994. It received a similar bill in 2005, which it disputed successfully.

　　这些违规通知包括利息以及75%的罚款。若错误得到证实，罚款变为150%，数额庞大，无力支付。比如MMX公司最近的争议账单是其总市值的90%。因此公司只能抗争，别无选择。若是走到对簿公堂这一步，轻而易举的就打发了15年。

　　Such infraction notices include interest and a penalty of 75%, or 150% if fraud is suspected. That often makes them unpayably vast: MMX’s disputed bill is 90% of its entire market value. So firms have little choice but to fight, which can easily take 15 years if the argument ends up in court.

　　Peroba先生说，相比总体的负担，外商更担心巴西税收的复杂以及不可预测性。本 国公司认为长期的税收争斗是经营的另一项花费。不过几乎没有人担忧税务人员会让自己破产。近几年，政府通过几项税收大赦政策，大幅度削减利息，罚金，并且 允许分期支付违约金。Peroba先生说，“除非进行税收改革，否则大赦是唯一保持税收系统运行的方法。巴西人知道会不时受到这些账单，即使最终必须支付 也不会是全部金额。”

　　Foreign businesses worry more about the complexity and unpredictability of Brazil’s taxes than the total burden, says Mr Peroba. Locals regard long tax battles as just another cost of doing business; few worry that the taxman will bankrupt them. In recent years the government has passed several tax amnesties, slashing interest and fines and letting infractors pay in instalments. “Without tax reforms, amnesties are the only way to keep the system going,” says Mr Peroba. “Brazilians know these bills will come from time to time, and if they eventually have to pay it won’t be the full amount.”

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