VOA慢速英语:Luxembourg Set to End Bank Secrecy

European Union finance ministers have reached an agreement that will make it more difficult for tax avoiders to hide their money. The new legislation was approved last week after Luxembourg and Austria agreed to lift their vetoes. Countries known as tax havens had blocked the bank secrecy laws for years.
欧盟财长们已经达成了一项协议，这将使得逃税者更难隐藏他们的资金。上周，在卢森堡和奥地利同意解除他们的否决权之后，这项新立法于上周得到了批准。被称为避税天堂的一些国家多年来都在阻止这项新立法。

The new law means that depositors will no longer be able to hide their money from governments in EU countries like Luxembourg. So says Algirdas Semeta, the EU Commissioner for Taxation.
这项新法意味着储户再也无法在卢森堡之类的欧盟国家向政府隐藏他们的资金。欧盟税务专员Algirdas Semeta这样说到。

"The revised directive promises full and lasting tax transparency in Europe. Bank secrecy is dead, and automatic exchange of information will be applied in its widest form."
“修订后的指令有望能全面持久地保证欧洲的税务透明度。银行保密已死，信息自动交换将以最广泛的形式得到应用。”

Luxembourg agreed to share bank information with member countries starting in 2017. Austria has signaled that it will do the same by 2018.
卢森堡同意在2017年与欧盟成员国共享银行信息。奥地利也表态将在2018年推出同样的措施。

Jacob Kirkegaard is a researcher with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He says the agreement is an important milestone in worldwide efforts to stop tax avoidance.
Jacob Kirkegaard是彼得森国际经济研究所的一位研究员。他说该协议是全球制止避税措施的一个重要里程碑。

"This is a very significant development and it's really the culmination of what at least in the EU has been a decade-long struggle by some governments - in France, Italy and Germany - to really curb this long standing practice of anonymous, offshore, if you like, bank accounts in other EU countries."
“这是一项非常显著进展，也是欧盟内部法国、意大利和德国等国长达十年斗争的高潮，他们希望真正遏制长期以来在欧盟其它国家的匿名账户和离岸账户。”

Many years of bank secrecy have helped Luxembourg become one of Europe's main financial centers. Bank deposits in the country are valued at more than 10 times the size of the nation's yearly economic production.
多年的银行保密已经帮助卢森堡成为欧洲最重要的金融中心之一。该国银行存款总值是该国年度经济产值的10倍以上。

Switzerland once was among the world's biggest tax havens: countries with little bank regulation or with low taxes. But the country ended its bank secrecy policy last year after facing intense legal pressure from Europe and the U.S.
瑞士曾经是全世界最大的避税天堂之一。这类国家银行监管少，税率低。但去年瑞士在受到欧美巨大的法律压力之后，结束了该国的银行保密政策。

People seeking to avoid taxes in their home country can still hide their money in less developed countries where bank supervision is weaker. But Jacob Kirkegaard says the choices and advantages of doing so are shrinking.
希望避免在本国纳税者仍然可以将他们的资金隐藏在银行监管薄弱的欠发达国家。但Jacob Kirkegaard称，这样做的选择面和优势都在变窄。

"Well, you can go to places like Dubai, some have mentioned Singapore, but Singapore has also recently joined these efforts, so it becomes increasingly difficult to keep your money at a place at which they are readily available."
“好吧，你可以去迪拜等地，也有人提到了新加坡，但新加坡最近加入了该努力。所以将资金存放在方便存取的地方越来越难。”

Some economists estimate that as much as eight percent of the world's financial wealth may be hidden in tax haven countries. That is more than $7 trillion. It is estimated that worldwide tax income would increase by $200 billion if that money were correctly reported to tax officials.
一些经济学家估计，高达8%，也就是7万亿美元以上的世界经济财富可能被藏匿在避税天堂国家。据估计，如果这些资金向税务官员正确申报，全球范围内的税收收入将增加2000亿美元。