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Europe greek taxation —— A national sport no more
歐洲 希臘稅收：逃漏稅再也不是全民運動
Greek tax dodgers are being outed
希臘嚴懲逃漏稅者
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Greek officials used to shrug off tax evasion as "a national sport". The finance ministry focused on raising revenue through indirect taxes such as value-added tax. Meanwhile income from a flourishing black economy financed the building of second homes on the islands, in Greece ’ s Arcadian heartland or moved into bank accounts abroad.
希臘官員曾經將逃漏稅看作一場 " 全民運動 "，對其並不重視。財政部主要通過增值稅之類的間接稅收來增加收入。同時，繁榮的黑市經濟創造的收入一部分走入希臘田園牧歌般的中部的二手房市場，一部分流入境外銀行賬戶。
Those days are over. As Greece struggles to put its public finances in order, property owners have been hit by a volley of new taxes and holders of Swiss bank accounts are under uncomfortable scrutiny. Hot Doc, an investigative magazine, recently published a list of 2,000Greeks who kept accounts at a Geneva branch of HSBC.
這樣的日子一去不復返瞭。當希臘掙紮著穩定公共金融秩序的時候，房產主受到瞭各種新稅種的連番轟炸，瑞士銀行持股人也處於監控之下，無法安心。調查性雜志《熱門檔案》最近公佈瞭一份名單，曝光瞭 2000 位在匯豐銀行日內瓦分行開戶的希臘富人。
Costas Vaxevanis, its editor, is adamant that to publish the list was in the public interest. ( Many hard-up, law abiding Greeks would agree. ) He argues that reforms of taxation have not gone far enough, despite recent efforts by the conservative-led coalition government of Antonis Samaras to pursue 54,000 taxpayers who sent 22 billion ( $28.5 billion ) abroad in2009-11. About 15,000 people transferred funds that were not declared to the tax authorities; the government now hopes to rake in an extra 2.25 billion in taxes.
雜志總編輯哥斯達斯 · 瓦瑟瓦尼斯堅稱，公佈這份名單是保護公眾利益。 ( 許多經濟拮據並遵紀守法的希臘人會認同這一點 ) 。 他聲稱，盡管最近保守派的安東尼斯 · 薩馬拉斯領導的聯合政府做出瞭許多努力，追查在 2009 至 2011 年間將 220 億歐元 ( 合 285 億美元 ) 轉移到國外的 54,000 位納稅人，但稅制改革還遠遠不夠深入。大約有 15,000 人轉移到境外的資產是未向政府申報的資產，希臘政府現在則希望稅收收入快速增加 22.5 億歐元。
Mr. Vaxevanis is due to be tried in Athens on November 1st on charges of violating data-privacy laws by publishing the list that contains names of politicians, ship owners and businesspeople. He accepts that some accounts held legitimate funds. Yet many of the 200people contacted by the Hot Doc team either claimed the list was a fake or begged him not to publish their names, he says.
瓦瑟瓦尼斯預計會在 11 月 1 日因 " 違反數據保密法，擅自公佈包含政客、船商及企業老板姓名名單 " 受審。他承認一些賬戶持有的是合法資金。然而，他還說，《熱門文章》雜志團隊取得聯系的 200 人，或聲稱名單是偽造的，或乞求他不要公佈他的名單。
Those most embarrassed by the revelations are two former socialist finance ministers, George Papaconstantinou, and his successor, Evangelos Venizelos, now leader of Pasok ( the Pan Hellenic Socialist Movement ) . In 2010 Mr. Papaconstantinou requested the list, put together by a former HSBC employee, from Christine Lagarde, then his counterpart in France. He asked Ioannis Kapeleris, the head of SDOE, the Greek financial police, to check out ten names. Although they turned out to be suspected tax evaders, Mr Papaconstantinou never pursued the matter. The CDs containing the names and a copy made on a USB stick were "mislaid", Mr. Papaconstantinou told parliament. The next head of SDOE, Ioannis Diotis, a former public prosecutor, told Mr. Venizelos an investigation into the stolen list could face legal problems. The matter was quietly dropped.
在此次揭發事件中最為難堪的是兩位社運黨籍前財政部長：喬治 · 帕帕康斯坦提諾及其繼任者、泛希臘社會主義運動黨現任領導人伊萬格勒斯 · 維尼則羅斯。2012 年，帕帕康斯坦提諾曾向法國財政部長克裡斯蒂娜 · 拉加德索要過這份由一位前恒生銀行員工制成的名單。還曾要求希臘獨立稅務調查組——相當於希臘的財政警察——負責人揚尼斯 · 卡佩勒瑞斯調查其中的 10 個人。盡管調查結果顯示這些人有逃漏稅嫌疑，帕帕康斯坦提諾卻從未追究下去。他告訴議會，記載名字的 CD 及裝有副本的 USB 存儲器 " 不知道被放在哪兒瞭 "。繼任的希臘獨立稅務調查組負責人、前檢察官揚尼斯 · 戴奧蒂斯告訴維尼則羅斯，調查丟失的名單可能會遇到一些法律問題。此事因此就被悄然擱置瞭。
Yannis Stournaras, the current finance minister, a technocrat, has asked Paris to send another copy of the list, which dates from 2007. Yet it may still be hard to catch up with tax evaders. According to Mr. Kapeleris, delays in digitizing tax records have meant that many documents going back more than five years are shredded.
現任財政部長雅尼斯 · 斯托納拉斯是位技術官員。他要求巴黎再給他提供一份 2007 年以來的名單副本。然而，想抓住那些逃漏稅者還是很難。據卡佩勒瑞斯說，由於實現稅務記錄數字化過程落後而緩慢，5 年多以前的許多文件都被粉碎瞭。
The sheer scale of Greek tax evasion angers the European Union and IMF officials trying to knock Greece ’ s economy back into shape. One recent study suggested up to 30 billion of revenue goes uncollected every year. Ms Lagarde, now the IMF managing director, has said publicly she cares more about village schoolchildren in Niger than Athenians "who are trying to escape tax all the time." Mr. Vaxevanis ’ s trial will be closely watched.
希臘大規模的逃漏稅激怒瞭歐盟及國際貨幣基金組織裡那些嘗試將希臘經濟扳回正軌的官員。最近一份研究表明，希臘每年會流失約 300 億歐元的稅收收入。現擔任國際貨幣基金組織總裁的拉加德女士公開表示，相比起 " 一直嘗試偷漏稅的 " 雅典人來說，她更關心尼日爾的農村學齡兒童。對瓦瑟瓦尼斯的審判將會受到密切關註。
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