巴菲特致合伙人的信（1970年2月25日）⑦折价债券和足额息票债券

Discount Versus Full Coupon Bonds

You will have noticed in the above discussion that if you now wanted to buy a 7% return on a nineteen year bond, you had a choice between buying a new nineteen year bond with a 7% coupon rate or buying a bond with a 5% coupon at $791.60, which would pay you $1,000.00 in nineteen years. Either purchase would have yielded exactly 7% compounded semi-annually to you. Mathematically, they are the same. In the case of tax-free bonds the equation is complicated, however, by the fact that the $70.00 coupon is entirely tax-free to you, whereas the bond purchased at a discount gives you tax-free income of $50.00 per year but a capital gain at the end of the nineteenth year of $208.40. Under the present tax law, you would owe anything from a nominal tax, if the gain from realization of the discount was your only taxable income in the nineteenth year, up to a tax of over $70.00 if it came on top of very large amounts of capital gain at that time (the new tax law provides for capital gain rates of 35%, and even slightly higher on an indirect basis in 1972 and thereafter for those realizing very large gains.) In addition to this, you might have some state taxes to pay on the capital gain.

折价债券与足额息票债券

在前面的内容里，你可能注意到了，现在要买一只收益率为7%、期限为19年的债券的话，你有两个选择：一个是买入票面利率为7%、期限为19年的债券；另一个是买入票面利率为5%、价格为791.60美元、19年后支付给你1,000.00美元的债券。每半年计算一次复利，买这两只债券都恰好可以实现7%的收益率。从数学计算上来看，这两只债券没差别。如果买的是免税债券，就有些复杂了。70.00美元的利息是完全免税的。折价买入的那只债券，每年50美元的利息是免税的，但是在19年后有208.40美元的资本利得。按照现行税法，如果你只有这一部分实现的折价收益需要交纳资本利得税，只要交很少的税就行了；如果你除了这笔收益，还有其他金额很大的资本利得，则最多可能交纳70多美元的税（新税法规定资本利得税税率是35%，1972年，金额较大的资本利得，税率略高于35%）。除此之外，可能还要因这部分资本利得而交纳州政府征收的税款。

Obviously, under these circumstances you are not going to pay the $791.60 for the 5% coupon and feel you are equally as well off as with the 7% coupon at $1,000.00. Neither is anyone else. Therefore, identical quality securities with identical maturities sell at considerably higher gross yields when they have low coupons and are priced at discounts than if they bear current high coupons.

显然，考虑到上述因素，你不会支付791.60美元买票面利率为5%的债券，而是会选择支付1,000.00美元买票面利率为7%的债券。别人和你想的一样。正因为如此，质地相同、期限相同的债券，如果票面利率较低而且存在折价，那么与当前票面利率较高的债券相比，折价债券的毛收益率会更高一些。

Interestingly enough, for most taxpayers, such higher gross yields over-compensate for the probable tax to be paid. This is due to several factors. First, no one knows what the tax law will be when the bonds mature and it is both natural and probably correct to assume the tax rate will be stiffer at that time than now. Second, even though a 5% coupon on a $1,000.00 bond purchased at $791.60 due in nineteen years is the equivalent of a 7% coupon on a $1,000.00 bond purchased at par with the same maturity, people prefer to get the higher current return in their pocket. The owner of the 5% coupon bond is only getting around 6.3% current yield on his
$791.60 with the balance necessary to get him up to 7% coming from the extra $208.40 he picks up at the end. Finally, the most important factor affecting prices currently on discount bonds (and which will keep affecting them) is that banks have been taken out of the market as buyers of discount tax-free bonds by changes brought about in bank tax treatment through the 1969 Tax Reform Act. Banks have historically been the largest purchasers and owners of tax-free bonds and anything that precludes them from one segment of the market has dramatic effects on the supply-demand situation in that segment. This may tend to give some edge to individuals in the discount tax-free market, particularly those who are not likely to be in a high tax bracket when the bonds mature or are sold.

有意思的是，对于大多数人来说，由此产生的较高的毛收益率带来的补偿高于可能要支付的税款。原因有几点。首先，谁都不知道债券到期后税法会怎么规定，先假设将来的税率比现在高，也有道理。其次，一只债券票面利率为5%、面值为1,000.00美元、期限为19年、价格为791.60美元，另一只债券票面利率7%、面值为1,000.00美元、期限相同、价格为面值，人们还是愿意选能现在就把较高的收益装在口袋里的。持有票面利率为5%的债券，支付791.60美元，获得的当前收益率只有6.3%左右，到期后得到208.40美元才能实现7%的收益率。最后要说的一点是当前乃至将来影响折价债券价格的最重要因素，由于1969年《税法改革法案》中的银行税制改革规定，银行不会再参与购买折价免税债券了。银行一直以来都是免税债券的最大买家和持有者。现在它们不能参与折价免税债券的买卖了，对这个细分市场的供求关系造成了重大影响。这样一来，有些个人投资者在折价免税债券市场中可能更有优势，特别是那些在将来债券到期或卖出时税档比较低的个人投资者。

If I can get a significantly higher effective after-tax yield (allowing for sensible estimates of your particular future tax rate possibilities), I intend to purchase discount bonds for you. I know some partners prefer full coupon bonds, even though their effective yield is less, since they prefer to maximize the current cash yield and if they will so advise me, we will stick to full coupon issues (or very close thereto) in their cases.

在充分合理的估算你将来的税率的前提下，如果实际税后收益率特别高，我会帮你购买折价债券。我知道有些合伙人更愿意买足额息票债券，尽管它们的实际收益率较低，但他们想获得较高的当前现金收益率。如果你是这样的情况，请告诉我，我们会帮你选择足额息票债券。