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Finance & economics
财经板块
Windfall taxes: Power grab
意外利润税：争夺权力
Poloticians turn to a tax that is enticing on paper, but tricky in practice
政治家们盯上了一种看似诱人，却难以落实的税收政策
On march 8th, the day the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil spiked above $127, the European Commission unveiled its grand plan to fight stratospheric living costs.
3月8日，布伦特原油价格飙升至每桶127美元以上，当天，欧盟委员会公布了其应对惊人之高的生活成本的宏大计划。
Claiming that the “crisis situation” warranted exceptional measures, it recommended that member states levy a one-off tax on electricity-generating firms.
它声称“危机情况”需要采取特殊措施，建议成员国对发电公司征收一次性税。
The revenues raised could then be used to keep households’ bills down.
增加的收入可以用来降低民众家庭支出。
The next day Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, tweeted that she and other legislators were working on a tax on the “war-fuelled profits” accruing to American oil majors.
第二天，来自马萨诸塞州的参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦在推特上说，她和其他立法者正在研究对美国石油巨头们积累的“战争催动的利润”征税。
The proposal is now making its way through the House of Representatives.
该提案目前正在众议院审议。
Politicians have reached for such “windfall” taxes before. Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Spain have imposed them on power generators in recent months, as benchmark energy prices have risen.
政客们曾经也征收过这种“意外利润税”。随着基准能源价格的上涨，保加利亚、意大利、罗马尼亚和西班牙近几个月对发电企业征收了“意外利润税”。
In 1980, America announced that it would begin taxing oil prodecers in 6 years' time, hoping to cash in on profits that were expected to be made after prices were deregulated.
1980年，美国宣布将在6年内开始对石油生产商征税，希望在油价解除管制后从预期的利润中获利。
Britain’s new Labour government taxed utilities in 1997, after the Conservative government had sold them off cheaply.
1997年，在保守党政府低价出售公用事业之后，英国的新工党政府开始对公用事业征税。
The levies are understandably tempting for the taxman. Big windfalls mean big receipts.
可以理解，这些税对税务人员来说很诱人。大笔的意外所得意味着大笔收入。
The usual worry with a tax is that it might change companies’ behaviour, say by encouraging them to lower investment in order to bring down future tax bills.
关于税收，人们常有的担忧是，它可能会改变公司的行为，比如会促使它们减少投资，以降低未来的税款。
But the event causing the windfall is meant to be a one-off, unconnected to investment.
但产生意外之财的事件往往是一次性的，与投资无关。
They are “extremely efficient ways to raise revenue”, says Helen Miller of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank in London. At least, in theory.
伦敦智库财政研究所的海伦·米勒说，这是“非常有效的增加收入的方式”。至少在理论上是这样。
Britain’s tax probably fitted the ideal better than most. It had a clear rationale: that excess gains had come from the underpricing of shares when firms were privatised.
英国的税收可能比大多数国家更符合这一理想状态。它有一个明确的理论基础：超额收益源自公司私有化时的股票定价过低。
Post-privatisation profits were multiplied by a price-to-earnings ratio; a 23% tax was levied on what was left over once public proceeds from privatisation were subtracted.
私有化后的利润乘以市盈率；从私有化中获得的公共收益被扣除之后，剩下的部分将被征收23%的税。
Even then, however, the tax failed to target the beneficiaries of excess gains.
然而，即便如此，这种税收也无法针对超额收益的受益人。
British Telecom, the first utility to be privatised, had listed in 1984. Many early punters had come and gone, leaving shareholders in 1997 bearing the burden.
英国电信是第一家私有化的公用事业公司，于1984年上市。许多早期的投资者来了又走，只剩下股东们在1997年承受着负担。
Levies elsewhere have faced other hurdles. In 2006 Mongolia introduced a 68% charge on profits from copper and gold sales, hoping to cash in on a new mine during a commodity-price boom.
其他地方的征税也面临着其他障碍。2006年，蒙古对铜和黄金销售的利润收取68%的费用，希望在大宗商品价格上涨期间从一座新矿中获利。
Instead, investors withheld funds for the project until regulators agreed to drop the tax. America’s tax did distort firms’ behaviour, by some estimates reducing oil production between 1980 and 1986 by up to 4.8%.
现实却恰恰相反，投资者扣留了该项目的资金，直到监管机构同意取消税收。美国的税收确实转变了企业的行为，据估计，1980年至1986年间，美国的石油产量减少了4.8%。
The European Commission’s plan has its flaws. It does not explain why the current situation warrants a one-off tax, adding uncertainty about when such levies might be used again.
欧盟委员会的计划有其缺陷。它没有解释为什么目前的情况需要征收一次性税，这增加了何时可能再次使用这种税收的不确定性。
Furthermore, the energy industry buys and sells power using long-term contracts, making the link between today’s prices and tomorrow’s profits fuzzy.
此外，能源行业使用的是长期合同进行电力买卖，所以当前价格和未来利润之间的关系比较模糊。
And prices can fall as quickly as they rise. By March 16th, for instance, the oil price was back to about $100 a barrel.
价格下跌的速度和上涨的速度一样快。例如，到3月16日，油价回到了每桶100美元左右。
Recent experiments offer scant grounds for optimism. Romania, Italy and Spain are targeting renewable-power generators, which have not experienced the same increase in costs as generators that use fossil fuels.
最近的实验很难让人乐观。罗马尼亚、意大利和西班牙正将目标瞄准可再生能源电力公司，因为这些电力公司的成本没有像使用化石燃料的公司那样上涨。
Richard Howard of Aurora Energy, a consultancy, says that this raises the “risk premium” of investing in renewables—exactly what legislators want to avoid.
咨询公司Aurora Energy的理查德·霍华德说，这增加了投资可再生能源的“风险溢价”，而这正是立法者想要避免的。
Peter Styles of the European Federation of Energy Traders, a trade body, notes that Spain’s scheme stops green-energy generators accruing excess profits to begin with, which will distort the way prices are set in the market.
欧洲能源贸易联合会(一个贸易团体)的彼得·斯泰尔斯指出，西班牙的计划从一开始就阻止了绿色能源发电企业获得超额利润，这将改变市场定价的方式。
Their momentum across Europe also creates a fiscal opening that may be hard to close. The commission recommends that all windfall taxes should be wound down by the end of June.
欧洲的这种税收势头也创造了一个难以停止的财政开放现象。欧洲委员会建议所有的意外利润税应该在六月底结束。
But Spain has already extended its clawbacks once. And Italy’s measures will last until December.
但西班牙已经将征税款计划延长了一次。意大利的税收措施也将持续到12月。
