巴菲特致股东的信（1998年）②税务

Taxes

One beneficiary of our increased size has been the U.S. Treasury. The federal income taxes that Berkshire and General Re have paid, or will soon pay, in respect to 1998 earnings total $2.7 billion. That means we shouldered all of the U.S. Government's expenses for more than a half-day.

税务

我们规模扩大最直接的受惠者就是美国国税，今年光是伯克希尔与通用再保险已经支付或即将支付的联邦所得税就有 27 亿美元之多，这笔钱足够供美国政府支应半天以上的开销。

Follow that thought a little further: If only 625 other U.S. taxpayers had paid the Treasury as much as we and General Re did last year, no one else -- neither corporations nor 270 million citizens -- would have had to pay federal income taxes or any other kind of federal tax (for example, social security or estate taxes). Our shareholders can truly say that they "gave at the office."

也就是说，全美国只要有 625 个像伯克希尔及通用再保险这样的纳税人的话，其它所有的美国公司或 2.7 亿美国公民都可以不必再支付任何的联邦所得税或其它任何形式的联邦税(包含社保或房产税)，所以伯克希尔的股东可以说是竭尽所能。

Writing checks to the IRS that include strings of zeros does not bother Charlie or me. Berkshire as a corporation, and we as individuals, have prospered in America as we would have in no other country. Indeed, if we lived in some other part of the world and completely escaped taxes, I'm sure we would be worse off financially (and in many other ways as well). Overall, we feel extraordinarily lucky to have been dealt a hand in life that enables us to write large checks to the government rather than one requiring the government to regularly write checks to us -- say, because we are disabled or unemployed.

对于查理跟我来说，向国税局签发后面有一长串零的大额支票一点都不会感到困扰，伯克希尔身为一家美国企业，以及我们身为美国公民，得以在美国这个伟大的国家繁荣发展，这是在其它国家所不可能达到的，我想，如果我们生在世界上别的角落，那么就算是我们再怎么努力的逃避税负，我们也不可能像现在这么富有(也包含生活上的其它层面)，从另一个角度来说，我们感到很幸运能够支付一大笔钱给政府，而非因为我们残障或失业，要靠政府三不五时来救济我们。

Berkshire's tax situation is sometimes misunderstood. First, capital gains have no special attraction for us: A corporation pays a 35% rate on taxable income, whether it comes from capital gains or from ordinary operations. This means that Berkshire's tax on a long-term capital gain is fully 75% higher than what an individual would pay on an identical gain.

伯克希尔的纳税情况常常引起外界的误解，首先资本利得税对我们并不太有利，企业不论是资本利得或是其它正常的营利都必须支付 35%的所得税，这也就是说同样情况下，伯克希尔的长期资本利得税负担要比一般个人要高出 75%以上。

Some people harbor another misconception, believing that we can exclude 70% of all dividends we receive from our taxable income. Indeed, the 70% rate applies to most corporations and also applies to Berkshire in cases where we hold stocks in non-insurance subsidiaries. However, almost all of our equity investments are owned by our insurance companies, and in that case the exclusion is 59.5%. That still means a dollar of dividends is considerably more valuable to us than a dollar of ordinary income, but not to the degree often assumed.

另外还有一种误解，认为我们可以将 70%以上的股利收入列为免税收入，事实上这种适用于大部分美国企业的优惠，仅适用于伯克希尔旗下非保险公司所持有的股票，可惜我们大部分的股票都是由保险公司所持有，这部分的免税比例就只有 59.5%，当然这仍然代表每一块钱的股利收入比起其它一般的应税收入来得有价值。

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Berkshire truly went all out for the Treasury last year. In connection with the General Re merger, we wrote a $30 million check to the government to pay an SEC fee tied to the new shares created by the deal. We understand that this payment set an SEC record. Charlie and I are enormous admirers of what the Commission has accomplished for American investors. We would rather, however, have found another way to show our admiration.

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伯克希尔去年真的是卯起来为国税作贡献，像是去年的通用再保险合并案，我们就付了 3000 万美元给美国证监会作为发行新股的手续费，这金额创下了证监会有史以来的新纪录，查理跟我对于证监会为所有投资人所做的努力感到崇敬，只是如果能用其它方法来表示敬意就更好了。

Taxes One beneficiary of our increased size has been the U.S. Treasury. The federal income taxes that Berkshire and General Re have paid, or will soon pay, in respect to 1998 earnings total $2.7 billion. That means we shouldered all of the U.S. Government's expenses for more than a half-day.

Taxes

One beneficiary of our increased size has been the U.S. Treasury. The federal income taxes that Berkshire and General Re have paid, or will soon pay, in respect to 1998 earnings total $2.7 billion. That means we shouldered all of the U.S. Government's expenses for more than a half-day.