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今天纽约时报重要而有趣文章: 因危机后西方各国普遍国债大增，但既没有国有资产收益来还，又不能“给中产阶级加重所得税”，故广泛诉诸于“stealth taxes”（也许译为“秘密税”？），即“狗税”“马税"等等.中国近年来国有资产收益的增加，可以给“将个税起征点提高到5000元”之类人大政协建议提供基础

Struggling Governments Get Creative to Raise Income

By MATTHEW SALTMARSH

Published: March 17, 2010

New York Times

PARIS — France, promising to improve the environment, is planning to introduce a carbon tax. In Finland, where the government says it wants to improve diets, taxes are back on candy and soft drinks. Similarly, Denmark added tobacco and some fatty foods to the list.

Britain is taking a different tack, considering a so-called horse tax.

All these taxes may be presented as serving virtuous ends, but they also share something else in common: they help plug budget holes swollen by a severe recession, big bailouts and billions in stimulus spending intended to ease the pain.

And at a time when political leaders in Europe and the United States are publicly committed to not increasing income tax rates on the middle class, these taxes also share the advantage of raising revenue without drawing too much attention to the tightening fiscal noose.

As a result, analysts say, taxpayers from California to Copenhagen should brace themselves for more “stealth taxes” — indirect levies like sales taxes, or micro-charges on services once provided free or at low cost, like registering a pet.

Such charges can have many benefits for tax collectors. For one thing, they are less volatile and less dependent on the economic cycle than corporate or income taxes. For another, they are less prone to avoidance and less costly to collect. Finally, analysts note, they are generally easier to enact.

“Politics comes into it,” said Stephen Matthews, a tax expert at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Raising income taxes is more of a “last resort,” he said.

Not that income taxes are entirely off the table. President Barack Obama has vowed to restore the higher tax rates of the Bill Clinton era on those earning more than $250,000 a year. And the British government recently returned its top tax rate to 50 percent after years of declines. But those increases are aimed at the wealthy.

With the public angry over the cost of bailing out the financial system, the idea behind such measures, Mr. Matthews added, is “to be seen to be tough on the rich.”

But countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Belgium already set their top rates around 50 percent — sometimes higher. For most countries, there is not room to go much further on that front.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, for example, was elected in 2007 promising to put more disposable income in people’s pockets. In the areas of income, corporate and wealth taxes, he has kept his pledge, capping increases. But with the bills from the financial crisis now landing — and the deficit rising — he is becoming more creative.

The taxpayers’ advocacy group Contribuables Associés claims that since Mr. Sarkozy was elected, at least 20 new taxes have been introduced, including one on crustaceans and mollusks to help pay for a rebate on diesel fuel for fishermen. Co-payments for some medications have gone up, as well as television license fees.

An official from the office of Éric Woerth, the French budget minister, disputed the group’s figure, saying it was much lower. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that the overall fiscal burden for households and companies had fallen under the government of Mr. Sarkozy.

Other countries have leaned toward increasing or extending the value-added, or sales, tax.

The average V.A.T. rate in the European Union climbed to 19.8 percent in 2009 from 19.5 percent in 2008. It would have been higher but for a temporary cut in Britain that expired in January.

A KPMG survey from October forecast that the average rate in Europe would hit 20 percent this year or next.

Beyond the taxes on unhealthy foods, Denmark recently removed exemptions on travel agencies, property management and the supply of buildings and land. Finland, besides resurrecting taxes on candy and carbonated drinks, raised the V.A.T. rate.

“There will also be a mixed bag of other indirect taxes and smaller stealth taxes, which combine revenue generation with others goals like improving the environment,” Niall Campbell, global head of indirect tax at KPMG, said by telephone from Dublin.

Britain raised the duty it adds to airplane tickets last year and it will jump again on Nov. 1. While billed as an environmental tax, critics note the revenue goes directly to the Treasury.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a British research group, estimates that revenue from the airline ticket tax will almost double to £3.3 billion, or $5.1 billion, in 2013 to 2014 from £1.8 billion, or $2.8 billion, in 2009 to 2010.