Tax Breaks, With Some Lobster
捐款抵稅 還有龍蝦可吃
By Jonathan Soble

HIRADO, Japan – In this small fishing village, tax breaks come in a cooler.
在日本平戶這個小漁村，減稅來自冰盒。（編按：平戶市位於長崎縣）

It is part of the great tax giveaway happening across Japan.
這是日本各地正在實施的大規模減稅的一部分。

Taxpayers who donate money to Hirado get a nice deduction and a shipment of slipper lobsters, spiral-shelled mollusks and oysters.
捐錢給平戶市的納稅人可以享受到不錯的扣抵額，還能得到琵琶蝦、螺類和牡蠣。

Don’t like seafood? Hirado has hundreds of other thank-you gifts, like a monthly vegetable delivery or a fold-up electric bike.
不喜歡海鮮？平戶另外備有數百種謝禮，像是每月宅配的蔬菜或摺疊式電動自行車。

Donors – 36,000 in one year – now outnumber residents.
一年內出現三萬六千名金主，人數已超過居民。

“I think of them as neo-citizens,” said Hirado’s mayor, Naruhiko Kuroda.
平戶市長黑田成彥說：「我視他們為新市民。」

Exploiting a quirk in the country’s tax system, scores of towns with dwindling populations are supplementing revenue by courting outside donors.
數十座人口不斷減少的城鎮，正利用日本稅務系統的古怪之處，藉由招攬外部捐贈者來增加稅收。

Local governments are offering things as diverse as marbled Wagyu beef and hot-spring vacations. One city in central Japan, Bizen, attracted 56 million yen with a deal on tablet computers.
各地政府提供的項目五花八門，像是神戶牛五花和溫泉假期。中部的備前市用平板電腦吸引到5600萬日圓（約台幣1400萬元）的捐贈。

The government doubled the upper limit on tax deductions on April 1, to 20 percent of the value of the donor’s municipal tax bill. That could spur a big increase in donations, which hit 14 billion yen nationwide last year. Japan views it as a way of addressing stubborn wealth disparities between cities and the countryside.
4月1日，政府把減免額上限提高一倍，增至捐贈者地方稅的20%。日本去年全國捐款額達140億日圓，新政策可能會使捐款額大幅增加。日本城鄉財富差距問題棘手，政府將外部捐贈視為一種處理方式。

Critics, though, say the system has lost its initial purpose, which was to allow city dwellers to support their ancestral towns. The system is known as furusato nozei, or “hometown taxation.” But there is no requirement that donors have any connection to the places, and today few actually do.
不過，批評者說，這套名為「故鄉稅」的制度已經偏離初衷，就是讓城市居民可以支援老家。但是，現在並不要求捐贈者與受捐贈的地方有任何關聯，真正有關聯的少之又少。

The cost of thank-you gifts is also rising steadily as local governments compete to attract patrons – leaving less to spend on civic projects. Urban areas, where most donors live, end up bearing the cost, according to Takero Doi, a professor at Keio University, since donors’ tax write-offs subtract from other cities’ revenue. “Ultimately, it’s a zero-sum game.”
慶應義塾大學教授土居丈朗說，地方政府爭相吸引捐款者之際，謝禮的成本也不斷上升，導致市政工程支出額的減少。捐款的成本最終由大多數捐款者生活的城市地區承擔，因為對捐款者減稅導致其他城市稅收減少，「這終究是一場零和遊戲。」

While Hirado began accepting donations soon after the program began in 2008, it only recently started to earn serious money. It set up a website where donors can choose gifts and a point system to claim rewards. It takes a donation of 10,000 yen to get the seafood delivery.
平戶市在2008年捐款抵稅計畫啟動後不久開始接受捐款，直到最近才收到大筆捐贈。平戶市設立一個網站，供捐款者選擇禮物，還有積分系統讓捐贈者索取獎勵。捐款達一萬日圓就可獲贈海鮮宅配。

The town earned 1.46 billion yen in donations in its latest fiscal year, which ended in March – 7 percent of its annual budget. That was the most of any local government in Japan.
平戶市在3月結束的上一會計年度獲得14.6億日圓捐款，相當於年度預算的7%，居日本各地方政府之首。

“My wife saw something about it on TV and said it would be a good way to save on taxes,” said Shigeki Kanamori, a wealthy real estate developer in Tokyo.
「我妻子在電視上看到的，她說這是節稅的好辦法，」有錢的東京房地產開發商金森重樹說。

Mr. Kanamori gave 3 million yen to about 200 municipalities. In return, he received gifts worth roughly half that amount. Out of pocket, the haul cost him just 2,000 yen, about the price of lunch at a Tokyo restaurant.
金森重樹向大約200個地方政府捐贈300萬日圓。他獲得價值約達這個數額一半的禮物做為回報。他實際只花了2000日圓，相當於在東京的餐廳吃頓午餐的花費。

A few towns have opted for whimsy as a way of standing out. Higashi Kagawa, on the island of Shikoku, sends donors a selection of exotic beetles.
有些城鎮選擇標新立異。四國島的香川縣，送給捐贈者奇特的甲蟲。

Defenders of the system say its merits more than make up for its flaws. Japan’s regions already depend heavily on outside subsidies. But much of the money is opaquely handled and poorly spent, experts say.
支持者辯稱，這套制度瑕不掩瑜。日本的各地區已經十分依賴外部的補貼。但是專家說，很大一部分款項的處理是黑箱作業，而且沒有妥善花用。

In contrast, furusato nozei is more transparent, according to supporters. Recipients provide a list of proposed uses for donors’ money upfront and let them choose which ones to pay for. Popular causes include child care subsidies and computers for local schools.
「故鄉稅」的擁護者認為，相比之下，故鄉稅更為透明。受款者列出捐款使用的項目建議清單，讓捐款者自己選擇把錢花在哪個項目。受歡迎的項目包括育兒津貼和為當地中小學買電腦。

Takayuki Fukuoka, a farmer in Hirado, said he was earning about 30 percent of his income from gift requests. He said he hoped the program would open farmers’ eyes to new ways of marketing produce, instead of relying on the monopolistic wholesale system that dominates Japanese agriculture.
平戶的農民福岡孝之說，他的收入有三成來自贈送謝禮。他說，希望此一計畫可以讓農民們發現更多行銷農產品的方法，不再只是依靠主宰日本農業的獨占式批發系統。

He said, “This has been a very closed-off place until now.”
「迄今為止，這塊領域一直很封閉，」他說。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/business/international/in-japan-you-get-a-tax-break-and-a-side-of-lobster-and-beef.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20150601/c01japantax/zh-hant/

2015-06-23聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報七版右