巴菲特致股东的信（1993年）⑤税项

Taxes

As our Cap Cities sale emphasizes, Berkshire is a substantial payer of federal income taxes. In aggregate, we will pay 1993 federal income taxes of $390 million, about $200 million of that attributable to operating earnings and $190 million to realized capital gains. Furthermore, our share of the 1993 federal and foreign income taxes paid by our investees is well over $400 million, a figure you don't see on our financial statements but that is nonetheless real. Directly and indirectly, Berkshire's 1993 federal income tax payments will be about 1/2 of 1% of the total paid last year by all American corporations.

税项

正如刚刚提到的出售大都会股份，伯克希尔可以说是联邦政府的缴税大户，在 1993 年，我们总共支付联邦所得税 3.9 亿美元，其中 2 亿来自经营收益，另外 1.9 亿来自资本利得。此外，被投公司自身向联邦政府与国外政府支付了超过 4 亿美元的所得税，这个数字你在本公司的财务报表上看不到，但又确实存在的。去年，伯克希尔直接和间接支付给联邦政府所得税，占所有美国企业支付总额的 1.5%。

Speaking for our own shares, Charlie and I have absolutely no complaint about these taxes. We know we work in a market-based economy that rewards our efforts far more bountifully than it does the efforts of others whose output is of equal or greater benefit to society. Taxation should, and does, partially redress this inequity. But we still remain extraordinarily well-treated.

查理跟我对于我们自身股份所要缴纳的所得税，一点怨言也没有。我们是在一个市场导向的经济社会中工作，所得到的回报甚至比一些对这个社会有更多贡献的人还要多，通过租税政策，多多少少有助于社会公平分配，不过即便是如此，我们还是认为自己受到了特别优厚的待遇。

Berkshire and its shareholders, in combination, would pay a much smaller tax if Berkshire operated as a partnership or "S" corporation, two structures often used for business activities. For a variety of reasons, that's not feasible for Berkshire to do. However, the penalty our corporate form imposes is mitigated - though far from eliminated - by our strategy of investing for the long term. Charlie and I would follow a buy-and-hold policy even if we ran a tax-exempt institution. We think it the soundest way to invest, and it also goes down the grain of our personalities. A third reason to favor this policy, however, is the fact that taxes are due only when gains are realized.

虽然伯克希尔若是以合伙公司或 S 型企业的形式来经营(两种常见的企业组织形式)，伯克希尔及其股东将支付少得多的税款，但基于许多原因，那样的做法并不适合伯克希尔的运作。所幸，我们采取的长期投资的策略能在一定程度上减轻税负压力，就算我们经营的是一家免税机构，查理跟我还是会遵循买进并持有的策略，这是我们认为最合理的投资方式，同时也最符合我们的性格，另外一个好处就是，我们只有在实现资本利得时才需要缴税。

Through my favorite comic strip, Li'l Abner, I got a chance during my youth to see the benefits of delayed taxes, though I missed the lesson at the time. Making his readers feel superior, Li'l Abner bungled happily, but moronically, through life in Dogpatch. At one point he became infatuated with a New York temptress, Appassionatta Van Climax, but despaired of marrying her because he had only a single silver dollar and she was interested solely in millionaires. Dejected, Abner took his problem to Old Man Mose, the font of all knowledge in Dogpatch. Said the sage: Double your money 20 times and Appassionatta will be yours (1, 2, 4, 8 . . . . 1,048,576).

从我个人最喜爱的漫画短片《Lil Abner》中，我有机会可以体会到延迟纳税的好处，虽然当时我没有好好地利用那次机会。为了让他的读者觉得自己很优越，Lil Abner 一直快乐地维持单身，直到他迷上了纽约一位女演员Appassionatta，但由于她只对百万富翁有兴趣，因此只有 1 块钱的 Abner 可以说是一点希望都没有，沮丧的Abner 跑去无所不知的老人摩西 Mose 那里请他指点迷津，结果这位圣人对 Abner 说：很简单，你只要能够将身上仅有的一块钱，翻 20 番，Appassionatta 自然就会投入到你的怀抱(1,2,4,8….1048576)。

My last memory of the strip is Abner entering a roadhouse, dropping his dollar into a slot machine, and hitting a jackpot that spilled money all over the floor. Meticulously following Mose's advice, Abner picked up two dollars and went off to find his next double. Whereupon I dumped Abner and began reading Ben Graham.

我记得这段漫画的最后一段是 Abner 跑到一家旅馆，将他仅有的一块钱投入吃角子老虎机中，结果竟然中了七星，一时之间奖金掉满地，Abner 一丝不苟遵照 Mose 老人的旨意，只捡起了其中的两块钱，就出发去寻找下一次翻倍的机会，看到这里我便舍弃了 Abner，并开始研读格雷厄姆的理论。

Mose clearly was overrated as a guru: Besides failing to anticipate Abner's slavish obedience to instructions, he also forgot about taxes. Had Abner been subject, say, to the 35% federal tax rate that Berkshire pays, and had he managed one double annually, he would after 20 years only have accumulated $22,370. Indeed, had he kept on both getting his annual doubles and paying a 35% tax on each, he would have needed 7 1/2 years more to reach the $1 million required to win Appassionatta.

显然 Mose 不配当导师，除了没有预见 Abner 对于他的指示过于盲从的程度，他也没有考虑到可能的税负，假如 Abner 也像今天的伯克希尔一样必须负担高达 35%的联邦所得税的话，即使他每年都能成功地翻一番，20年后他也只能累积到 22370 美元。当然，若是他依然能保持每年翻一番的话，他则还须多等上七年半，才能累积到所需的 100 万，以赢得 Appassionatta 的芳心。

But what if Abner had instead put his dollar in a single investment and held it until it doubled the same 27 1/2 times? In that case, he would have realized about $200 million pre-tax or, after paying a $70 million tax in the final year, about $130 million after-tax. For that, Appassionatta would have crawled to Dogpatch. Of course, with 27 1/2 years having passed, how Appassionatta would have looked to a fellow sitting on $130 million is another question.

但是，如果 Abner 用他的一美元只进行一笔投资，同时，连续 27 年半都能保持每年翻一番的话，这样到最后，他可以累积高达二亿美元的税前利润，即使在扣除 7,000 万美元的所得税之后，税后利润依然高达 1.3 亿美元，届时 Appassionatta 爬着都想来见他了吧。当然，一个坐拥亿万美元的富翁会怎么看待年华老去的Appassionatta，则又是另外一回事了。

What this little tale tells us is that tax-paying investors will realize a far, far greater sum from a single investment that compounds internally at a given rate than from a succession of investments compounding at the same rate. But I suspect many Berkshire shareholders figured that out long ago.

这个小故事告诉我们的是，对于必须纳税的投资人来说，在回报率确定的情况下，一笔不断复利的投资(最后纳税)，远比连续做一系列相同的投资(每轮纳税)，回报要多的多，不过我怀疑许多伯克希尔的股东很早就已经知道这个道理了。