葡萄牙爲打擊逃稅獎勵豪華汽車

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

葡萄牙稅收當局認爲，造就好公民的祕訣可能在於贈送豪華汽車。

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，他們將開始每週抽獎，每年將送出60輛“頂級汽車”，以獎勵那些履行公民義務——向咖啡廳、餐廳、汽車維修車廠等企業索要含有其個人稅收號碼的發票——的消費者。此舉的目的是號召普通公民打擊逃稅、不公平競爭以及黑色經濟。據估計，葡萄牙黑色經濟的規模相當於官方全國產出的近五分之一。

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.

葡萄牙政府認爲，把銷售發票變成彩票能夠打擊偷稅者，而此舉對實現780億歐元的紓困協議爲其設定的嚴格赤字目標也是有益的。

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.

葡萄牙財務國務祕書保羅•農西奧(Paulo Nuncio)相信，給人們提供贏得豪車的機會，將使得今年向稅收部門申報的銷售交易的數量增加50%，報稅發票將比去年多出約20億張。

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，納稅人爲這些汽車付出的成本——根據非官方估算，每輛車約爲9萬歐元——遠不及將產生的未申報交易的稅收增加額。

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“以車換稅數據”計劃遭到很多人的反對，理由包括國家自豪感受損，也有對污染的擔憂。

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.

人們抱怨利用高端汽車的誘惑將“公民變成稅收檢查員”的做法與歐洲現代民主不符，而農西奧不得不想辦法去平息人們的情緒。

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.

葡萄牙的這項計劃是從巴西聖保羅州推出的類似彩票活動中獲得靈感的。阿根廷、哥倫比亞、波多黎各和臺灣也採取過類似做法。

“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.”

“這種措施可能稍稍有損我們的尊嚴，”德勤(Deloitte)駐里斯本稅務合夥人卡洛斯•洛雷羅(Carlos Loureiro)表示，“但真正影響我們文明水平的是……這麼多收入沒有申報，而不是這項應對措施。”

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.

反對該計劃的人士表示，此舉傳遞了錯誤的信息——在葡萄牙這樣一個試圖以出口拉動復甦的國家中會促進外國汽車的進口。他們還表示，此舉將破壞增加公共交通使用和減少污染的努力。