经济学人翻译练习

写在前面

个人读了十几期经济学人，不得不说。。。经济学人作为世界顶尖的期刊，其所持观点依旧做不到公正客观，不偏不倚，和VOA，TED一样不过也是西方发声的喉咙罢了，实在令人失望，仔细想想，却又非常正常。只指出最明显的一点就是，文章中对于中国永远是阴谋论和贬斥，充斥着或明或暗的讥讽，而对于美国等西方国家，却是一种，即使有问题，那也是小问题，随时可以纠正，并且前景一片光明的基调，实在是令人。。。尴尬。因此写在前面，提醒大家，在阅读文章的时候要保持清醒，有自己辩证的思考。

In praise of the Internal Revenue Service

The much-maligned tax agency, battered by the pandemic, has kept the economy going

英文原文： “NOW YOU may only see a pile of receipts. But I see a story. I can see where this story is going. It does not look good.” These lines, spoken by an Internal Revenue Service agent in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, a dark sci-fi comedy now showing in cinemas, is perfectly calibrated to strike fear into the hearts of Americans ahead of their tax-filing deadline on April 18th. The agent has a paper trail neatly arrayed on her desk as she conducts an audit. Reality is more frightening, for the exact opposite reason. “Paper is the IRS’s kryptonite,” Erin Collins, a watchdog within the IRS, recently told Congress. “The agency is buried in it.”

中文翻译： “你可能只是看到一堆的收据，但是我却从中看到了一个故事。我可以看到这个故事的走向，并且这个走向并不是很好”。这是美国国税局在黑色科幻喜剧“Everything Everywhere All At Once”中的台词。这部剧经过完美的校准以期在4月18日的报税截止日之前直击美国人心中的恐惧。电视剧中，工作人员在做审计时，讲书面记录整齐的放在她的桌上，但事实由于恰恰相反的原因，却更加令人惊恐。Erin Collins，一名国税局的监督人员说道：“纸张对于国税局来说就像是氪石和超人”。他告诉国会说：“这个机构被纸张给淹没了。”

英文原文： The IRS entered this tax season with a backlog of 24m returns, 20 times worse than normal, as it struggled to recover from pandemic disruptions. Good luck to anyone wanting help by phone: just one in nine callers reached an agent last year, according to Ms Collins. Now in the midst of a hiring drive, the IRS thinks it can clear the backlog by the end of 2022. But it will be up to two years late in processing many returns. “It’s a crisis,” says Mark Everson, former head of the IRS. “Millions of people and businesses who were due tax refunds don’t have that money yet. This is very detrimental for compliance.”

中文翻译： 因为国税局正努力从疫情中断中恢复过来，它在进入这个纳税季度时，积压了2400万份申报，比正常情况糟糕20倍。祝那些想通过电话得到帮助的人好运：据柯林斯女士说，去年只有九分之一的人打电话联系到了工作人员。现在，在招聘的过程中，美国国税局认为它可以在2022年底前清理积压的工作。但要处理完这么多申报的话还要两年。Mark Everson，前任国税局局长说道：“这是一场危机”。“数以百万计的应该得到退税的人和企业现在还没有拿到那笔钱，这对那些遵纪守法的人来说是非常不利的。”

英文原文： Even without the pandemic, the IRS was struggling, the victim of chronic underfunding. Spending on the agency has declined by nearly 20% since 2010. At the same time, the number of tax returns has increased by 20%. The backbone of the system, a nationwide taxpayer database, is built on top of a 1960s computer language rarely taught in schools. One major element of President Joe Biden’s legislative programme is a funding boost for the IRS. Yet that is stalled, along with much of the rest of his agenda.

中文翻译： 即使没有这场危机，国税局依然因为长期的缺乏资金而艰难求生。自2010年以来，给该机构提供的资金已经下降了近20%。与此同时，退税的金额增长了20%。纳税系统的主干是一个全国性的纳税人数据库，这个数据库是用一种1960年代的计算机语言编写的，而这种语言如今很少在学校教授。拜登总统立法计划的一个主要内容是增加对美国国税局的资金，然而，这和他的其他议程都停滞了。

英文原文： It is hard for lawmakers to summon enthusiasm for the IRS. Who enjoys paying taxes? Even for those who recognise the social value, the act of filing tax returns is a hassle. The 1040 form, the basic document for personal-income-tax reporting, came with just one page of instructions when introduced in 1913. This year’s version has 230 pages of instructions when counting all the branches added to it, reckons Demian Brady of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, an advocacy organisation.

中文翻译： 议员们很难唤起人们对美国国税局的热情了。谁会享受纳税的快乐呢？即使是对于那些承认纳税的社会价值的那些人，提交纳税申报单也是个麻烦的事。而1040表格，是一种个人所得税申报的基本文件，在1913年推出时，只有一页说明书。据全国纳税人联盟基金会的迪米安·布雷迪估计，今年的版本在计入所有增加的分支后，将会有230页的说明书。

英文原文： Like any good story, though, there is also a plot twist. Despite its awful backlog, the IRS has, from another perspective, had a very good pandemic. It has played a critical role in delivering support to Americans. And it has been surprisingly efficient at it. For each of the three rounds of stimulus payments, the IRS was the conduit. Within two weeks of Mr Biden’s signing of the stimulus bill in March 2021, for instance, it sent out $325bn via 127m separate payments, mainly by direct bank deposit. Some people fell through the cracks and cheques took longer. But most got the money quickly. The IRS operated at even greater frequency in making child-tax-credit payments every month.

中文翻译： 就像任何好故事那样，中间总是会有一些波折。从另一方面来说，即使有着这些糟糕的积压，国税局在疫情相关的事物方面做的很好（根据上下文翻译）。它在为美国人提供支持上面有着重要的作用，并且它在这一方面效率意外的高。在三轮刺激支付中，每一轮，国税局都起到了中转作用。例如，在拜登总统于2021年3月签署经济刺激方案之后的两周内，国税局通过1.27亿次支付分发了3250亿美元，这些钱主要是银行存款。有一些人因为一些意外没能按时拿到钱，但是大多数人都很快拿到了。美国国税局每月支付儿童税收抵免的频率甚至更高。

英文原文： Along with doling out vast sums of cash, the IRS also took less in. The government gave the unemployed tax breaks on their benefits and gave businesses tax breaks for retaining workers. It also expanded the earned-income tax credit, a subsidy given to low earners, one of America’s biggest anti-poverty programmes. Putting it together, a poor family with two young children could expect $20,000 from the IRS last year, double what they would normally receive. In all, the agency paid out more than $600bn in pandemic-related support in 2021, equivalent to about two-thirds of Social Security spending in the federal government’s budget. “We have seen a substantial share of what used to be the social safety-net migrate from the public-expenditure side of the federal ledger to being run through the tax code,” points out Gordon Gray of the American Action Forum, a think-tank.

中文翻译： 随着扔出去了大把现金，国税局同样有所收入。政府为失业者提供税收优惠以此作为其福利，并为留住员工的企业提供税收优惠。政府也增加啊了所得税抵免，作为一项低收入者的补助，这是美国最大的扶贫项目中的一部分。零零总总加起来，一个有两个孩子的贫穷家庭去年可以从国税局得到20000美元，要比他们平常能够拿到的多两倍。总之，在2021年一年内，国税局在疫情相关的支持措施上花了超过6000亿美元，相当于联邦政府花在社会安全方面的2/3的资金。美国行动论坛的一名智库，戈登·格雷指出。“我们可以看到，相当一部分的社会保障网从联邦账本的公共支出方面转移到通过税法运行。”

英文原文： By the agency’s own count, Americans spend about 13 hours doing their taxes on average—mostly condensed into one frantic spring weekend. In fact this is an improvement: in 2010 the estimate was 18 hours. Increased use of software such as TurboTax, made by Intuit, has sped up the filing process. More could be done: the IRS provides a free-software option for poorer Americans but does a bad job advertising it (the Federal Trade Commission is suing Intuit for allegedly attracting customers in the belief that filing would be free, only to charge them). There are also perennial calls for the IRS to collect tax via withheld pay, allowing many to avoid filing returns altogether, as is common elsewhere, including Britain.

中文翻译： 根据该机构自己的统计，美国人平均要在自己的纳税上面花13个小时，而这些花费的时间又普遍集中于一个疯狂的春季周末。事实上，这已经是效率的提升了：2010年的时候，要花上18个小时。在增加使用，由Intuit制作的软件TurboTax之后，加速了这一工作的完成。可以做到更多的事情了：IRS为美国的穷人提供了一种免费的软件作为选择，但是在宣传这个软件方面做的很糟糕（联邦贸易委员会以Intuit公司涉嫌欺骗客户为名对其进行起诉，因为该公司所谓的申请免费，只是为了进一步向顾客收费）。还有人长期呼吁国税局通过扣缴工资来征税，这种措施，可以让许多人可以免于提交纳税申报表，如同其它地方那样，比如英国。

英文原文： That, however, misses the point about the IRS as a welfare provider. It needs a range of information from taxpayers in order to assess their eligibility. “We don’t look at stores like Walmart and say, oh, it’s so complicated. We say, hey, that’s convenient. A similar thing should apply to some extent to the income-tax system,” says William Gale of the Brookings Institution, another think-tank. Using the 1040 form as the gateway to multiple social programmes and tax credits means that people do not have to go to a series of different agencies for each payout.

中文翻译： 然而，上述那些呼吁”国税局通过扣缴工资来征税“的人，却忽略了美国国税局作为福利提供者这一实质。它需要来自纳税人的一系列信息来评估他们的资格。另一家智库——布鲁金斯学会的威廉·盖尔说道：“我们不会看到像沃尔玛这样的商店，就说，哦，这太复杂了。我们会说，嘿，这很方便。类似的事情应该在某种程度上适用于所得税体系，”使用1040表格作为办理多种社会项目和税收抵免的门户，意味着人们不必为每次支付而去一系列不同的机构。

英文原文： Eventually, the IRS will hack its way through the pandemic backlog. That, however, will do nothing to fix another serious problem: the degradation of its auditing abilities. About a fifth of agency staff are eligible for retirement, and many have taken covid as the moment to leave. “We’re losing exactly the kind of people we need to be able to maintain enforcement scrutiny,” says a senior Treasury official. The IRS audited 0.3% of corporate tax returns filed in 2018, down from 1.6% in 2010. The number this year may well be lower. Charles Rettig, who leads the agency as its commissioner, has estimated that the government loses about $1trn in tax revenues annually because of cheating. The agency is “outgunned” against big companies, he says.

**中文翻译：**最后，国税局会设法解决由于疫情造成的积压。尽管这么做对修复另一个重大问题于事无补：其自身审计能力的下降。国税局有将近1/5的员工应当退休，许多人因感染新冠肺炎而离开。一个财政部高级官员说道：“我们正在持续失去那些能够维持执法审查的人”。2018年，国税局只审计了0.3%的企业纳税申报单，比2010年的1.6%还低。这一数字今年也许会更低。领导该机构的局长查尔斯·雷蒂格估计，政府因偷税漏税而每年损失约1万亿美元的税收收入。他说，该机构在打击大公司方面已经“落后于对手”。

英文原文： The answer to so many of the IRS’s woes—antiquated tech systems, congested phone lines, threadbare enforcement—is more funding. It stands as one of the few federal agencies that would generate a large and nearly immediate return on investment were the government to spend more on it. The hope for the harried tax agents is that the highs and lows of IRS performance during the pandemic will have earned it grudging support in Washington, demonstrating that it is both overstretched and indispensable.

中文翻译： 美国国税局面临许多困境：老旧的技术系统，拥堵的电话连线，疲软的执行力，而要解决这些困境的答案就是更多的资金援助。它是为数不多的一个能够获得巨大及时投资回报的联邦机构。对于这个忙碌的税务机构来说，其希望就在于，其在疫情期间，时好时坏的表现能为其在华盛顿赢得勉强的支持。使得当局知道它已经不堪重负又不可或缺。

翻译文本中的重点

filing tax returns 提交纳税申报单
personal-income-tax reporting 个人所得税申报
child-tax-credit 儿童税收抵免
earned-income tax credit 所得税抵免
senior Treasury official 财政部高级官员
antiquated 老旧的
corporate tax returns filed 企业纳税申报单

如果大家在阅读的过程中发现错误，万望不吝指出！非常感谢！