Any survey of tax sources should begin with the nation’s fairest and most productive soure of revenue, the individual income tax. 任何税收来源的调查都应开始于国家最公正、生产性最强的国民收入来源--个人所得税. All advanced industrial countries levy a dircct tax on individual incomes, but nowhere is this tax as important as in the United States. In recent years,about 40 percent of federal cash receipts has been collected from this source. 所有先进的工业国家都对个人所得直接征税,但没有哪个国家在征此税时像美国一样重要。近年来,约40%的联邦现金收入都来源于此. The individual income tax is uniquely suited for raising revenue in a democratic country where the distribution of income, and therefore of ability to pay,is unequal. Theoreticians may disagree about the meaningfulness of the term “ability to pay,” but the close association between a man’s income and taxpaying ability is commonly accepted. There is also general acceptance of the idea of progression in income taxation. 个人所得税是非常适合民主国家增加国民收入的,在民主国家里收入分配和支付能力是不平等的. 理论家可能不赞成"支付能力"的长远意义,但个人收入和纳税能力间的密切关系却是普遍接受的. 级数所得税的观点也被普遍接受. The individual income tax has still another attractive feature. Income alone does not differentiate a man’s ability to pay—his family responsibilities are also important. A single person may be able to along on an income of $3000 a year, but a married man with two children would have great diffculty making ends meet. The individual income tax takes such differences into account through the personal exemptions and deductions, which are subtracted before arriving at the income subject to tax. 个人所得税还有另一个吸引人的特点. 收入不足以区分一个人的支付能力—他的家庭责任也是很重要的. 单身男士也许每年收入达3000美元, 但带着两个孩子的已婚男人要想收支相抵却很困难. 个人所得税通过个人豁免和扣除将这种差异解决了, 个人免税额在应纳税收之前就扣除了. The revenue potential of the individual income tax has been recognized only recently. For almost thirty years after its adoption in 1913, the tax applied mainly to a small group of high income people. Exemptions were high by current standards and few incomes were large enough rates. In the national effort to raise needed revenue during World War Ⅱ, exemptions were drastically were increased in 1946 and 1948,but have remained low by prewar standards. Tax rates were also raised in wartime, and have remained much higher than in earlier years. At the same time, personal incomes have continued to increase with the growth of the economy (and with the inflation that occurred during and after World WarⅡ and the Korean War). The combination of lower exemptions, higher rates, and higher incomes increased the yield of the individual income tax manyfold. In1939, tax liabilities were about $1 billion; in 1966, they are in excess of $50 billion. 个人所得税的收入潜力最近才得到公认. 在1913年实施后的30年里,个人所得税主要应用于一小部分高收入人士. 在现行标准下豁免是很高的,低收入者占很大的比率. 二战期间,国家努力增加收入,豁免急剧减少。1946年和1948年有所提高,但从战前的水准看,仍然很低。税率在战时也有人提出,但比起早些年仍高多了. 在此同时, 个人收入随经济增长继续增加,(也与其间和二战后的通货膨胀和朝鲜战争的因素) . 较低的豁免,高利率,高收入的结合成倍地增加了个人所得税. 1939年,纳税义务约为10亿美元; 但1966年,超过了500亿美元. This tremendous expansion could not have been possible without ready compliance with income tax laws and effective many countries where compliance is poor and administration is weak, there is great reluctance to rely heavily on the income tax. In this country, the record of compliance is good—although it can still be improved—and practical methods have been developed for administering a mass income tax (at a cost of only about 1/2 of 1 percent of tax collected). In the late 1930’s many people—even high-placed officials of the Internal Revenue Service—doubted that an income tax covering almost everyone could be administered effectively. Although some problems remain, in an advanced country the administrative feasibility of an individual income tax of almost universal coverage is no longer questioned. 没有所得税法律的遵守和有效的管理,这个巨大的扩张是不可能的。许多国家法律意识差,管理松散,过于依赖所得税就很困难. 在这个国家, 守法记录还好--虽然它仍可以得到改善--实用方法已制定用来管理大量所得税(按成本仅约为1%的税收额的1 / 2 ) . 在20世纪30年代后期,很多人甚至美国国内税局的高级官员都认为关系每个人的所得税应得到有效管理. 尽管一些问题依然存在, 在一个先进的国家个人所得税的几乎全面普及在行政上的可行性已不存在质疑. There are good economic reasons for using the income tax as a major source of revenue. The automatie flexibility of the income tax promotes economic stability and the progressive rates help prevent excessive concentration of economic power and control. Some believe that the income tax is also needed to moderate the growth of private savings of high income people, which is likely to hold down private demand for goods and believe that a high income tax impairs work and investment incentives and , therefore, reduces the nation’s economic growth. These are difficult questions which will be discussed later. Nonetheless, it is correct to say that the modern individual income tax. If carefully designed and well administered, is a powerful and essential economic instrument for a modern indusrtial econmy. 使用所得税作为财政收入主要来源有很好的经济原因. 该所得税的自动灵活性能促进经济稳定,累进税率有助于防止经济权力和控制过分集中. 有人认为所得税也需缓和高收入人群的私人储蓄增长, 这很可能压抑商品的服务的私人需求。有人认为高所得税降低工作和投资动力,因此,减少了国家的经济增长. 这些都是日后讨论的难题. 但是,现代的个人所得税是正确的. 如果经过精心设计和良好管理,是现代工业化经济的有力而必要的经济手段。 Structure of the Federal Income Tax 联邦所得税结构 The basic structure of the federal income tax is simple. The taxpayer adds up all his taxable sources of income, subtracts certain allowable deductions and exemptions for himself, his wife, children, and other dcpendents,and then applies the tax rates to the difference. But this procedure has many pitfalls for the taxpayer, and difficult questions of tax policy arise at almost every stage. Consequently, it is important to understand the main features of the income tax structure. 联邦所得税的基本结构是很简单的. 纳税人增添了他的一切应纳税收入,减去某些自己的、妻子的、孩子的和其他相关人的允许扣除和豁免权,然后适用税率差额. 但这种程序对纳税人也有很多陷阱,税收政策的难题几乎出现在每一阶段. 因此,了解所得税结构的主要特征是重要的. Adjusted Gross Income and Taxable Income调整过的总收入和应纳税收入 The two major concepts of income that appear on the tax return are: adjusted gross income and taxable income. 出现在纳税申报单上的两大收益好象是:调整过的总收入和应纳税收入. Adjusted gross income is the closest approach in tax law to what all economist might call “total income.” But it departs from an economic definition of income in some important respects. It represents the total income from all taxable sources, less certain expenses incurred in earning that income. In general, only money income is treated as taxable, but many items are excluded. Such exclusions include one-half of realized capital gains on assets held six months or more, interest on state and local government bonds,all transfer payments(for example,social security benefits and unemployment compensation), fringe benefits received by employees from their employers(the most important of these are contributions to pension plans), and income on savings through life insurance. The emphasis on money income automatically excludes unrealized capital gains and such imputed income as the rental value of owner-occupied homes. 在税法上调整的总收入是所有经济学家称之为"总收入"的最接近说法。 但是,在某些重要方面,它背离了收入的经济学定义. 它表示所有应纳税来源的总收入,较少的赚取收入中的确定开支. 一般说来,只有货币收入被视为应税的,但很多项目都被排除在外. 这种排除包括二分之一的持有六个月或以上的已实现资本收益,国家和当地政府公债的利息,所有的转移支付(例如,社会保障福利和失业补偿) , 雇员从其雇主那得到的附加福利(贡献中最重要的是为养老金计划) , 和加入了人寿保险的储蓄收入. 对货币收入的强调自动排除了未实现资本收益和这种像所有者租税价的推算收入. Adjusted gross income is used on the tax return in two ways. First, it is the income concept built into the simplified tax table, which is used for determining tax on more than 25 million returns. Second,it provedes the basis for placing limits on some of the personal deductions which are subrtacted in computing taxable income. 调整后的总收入用于纳税申报单有两种方式. 第一,它是收入概念建成的简易税表, 用于决定税收突破2500万美元的回报. 第二,它提供了限制某些个人扣除的基础,个人扣除在计算应纳税收入时已经减去了. Taxable income is computed by making two sets of deductions from adjusted gross income. The rirst are personal expenditures which are allowed as deductions by law—charitable contributions, interest paid,state-local income, general sales, property and gasoline taxes, medical and dental expenses above 3 percent of adjusted gross income, and casualty and theft losses above $100 for each lieu of these deductions, the taxpayer may use the standard deduction of 10 percent of adjusted gross income(with a minimum of $200 plus $100 for each exemption,and a maximum of $1000 for single persons and married persons filing joint returns and $500 for married couples filing separate returns). 应税收入是从调整过的总收入中制作两套扣除法计算而来的. 剩下的是法律允许扣除的个人支出--慈善捐款,所付利息,国有地方收入,一般销售 财产和汽油税, 高于调整后总收入3%的医疗及牙科服务费用, 伤亡和每次损失100美元以上的偷盗损失。代替上述扣减, 纳税人可使用10%调整后的总收入的标准扣除额 (最低200美元,加上每项豁免100美元,单身和夫妻联合备案的已婚人士每人最高1000美元,并返回500美元为已婚备案夫妻分开报税) . When the present standard deduction was first adopted in 1944, it was used by over 80 percent of the persons filing incomes have risen and deductible expenditures have increased,the percentage using the standard deduction has declined. In 1963, the standard deduction was still being used on million returns, or 56 percent of the million filed(Appendix Table C-6). But the amount of the standard deduction was small compared to home ownership, state-local taxes,and use of consumer credit, as well as the normal increase in expenditures that occurs as incomes rise. Total deductions reported on all 1963 returns amounted to $ billion; of this amount, $ billion were itemized deductions and $ billion were standard deduction. 现行标准扣除额首次在1944年应用时, 它被用于个人存档返还的80%以上.随着收入的增加和可扣除支出增加, 用于标准扣除额的比率也有所下降. 1963年标准扣除额仍被用于3580万的回报, 或6390万存档56% (附录表C 6 ) . 但征收的标准扣除额是比较小的,与国有、地方税,消费品信贷的使用, 以及随收入增加而不断增加的正常开支相比.1963年报告的总扣除额回到了592亿美元; 这一数额中, 有461亿美元详细说明了扣除项目,131亿美元为标准扣除额.