亚马逊和Netflix一年赚几百亿却不用交税，很魔幻

Tax season is upon us–and by us, I mean everyone who is not Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, or pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co., because they are among the 60 or so corporations that paid zero dollars in federal income taxes on the billions of dollars in profits they earned in 2018.

又到了所有美国人交税的季节，不过这个“所有人”要去掉亚马逊、网飞、雪佛龙，以及制药制造商伊利莉莉等60多家企业，他们在2018年收入几十亿美元却免交联邦所得税。

That’s according to a new analysis, released today by the Washington-based think tank Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and first reported by The Center for Public Integrity. After analyzing the 2018 financial filings of the country’s largest 560 publicly held companies, they found that companies like Amazon and Netflix were “able to zero out their federal income taxes on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income,” thanks to the tax overhaul bill pushed through Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump.

根据一项最新的研究，最早发布在美国公共廉政中心，今天由位于华盛顿的智库税收与经济政策研究所(ITEP)发布，在分析了最大的560上市公司，他们发现像亚马逊和网飞这样的公司“美国税前收入790亿美元联邦所得税中的支出为0”，这一切都要感谢由国会通过的这些税法，以及川普总统将其签署入法。

“Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes, as the new 21% corporate tax rate requires, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion, blowing a $20.7 billion hole in the federal budget last year,” ITEP reported.

“除了不用付164亿的税金，根据新的21%的企业税率，这些公司还能够享受34亿美元的企业退税，这让联邦预算去年产生了高达207亿的大亏空。

As former Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) once said, “The purpose of a tax cut is to leave more money where it belongs: in the hands of the working men and working women who earned it in the first place.”

前参议员Bob Dole曾经说过：“减税的目的是让更多的钱用对地方，让工作的男女实实在在的拿到手里。”

While the corporate tax laws probably needed some overhauling (Obama fought to make them more globally competitive), when hardworking Americans have to pay taxes, in some cases more than in previous years, and billion-dollar, profit-making corporations have to pay nothing, it’s hard to see who this new tax bill is benefitting.

不过这项税法也许需要好好地审查下（奥巴马努力使他们更具全球竞争力）。当辛苦工作的美国人需要缴税，而在好几年前的几个案例中几个身价数十亿、利润丰厚的大企业却一毛不拔，这个新税法就很难看出到底是谁在收益。

Of course, as Albert Einstein said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

当然，就像艾伯特爱因斯坦说的：“这个世界上最难懂的事情莫过于所得税。”