法德呼籲擬定避稅地國際黑名單

Paris and Berlin are pressing industrialised nations to pull together a common blacklist of territories that breach transparency standards, in the toughest government responses yet to the Panama Papers affair.

法國和德國政府敦促工業化國家共同擬定一份關於違反透明度標準的地區的黑名單，這是迄今政府層面對巴拿馬文件(Panama Papers)事件作出的最嚴厲迴應。

Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, and Michel Sapin, his French counterpart, also emphasised the need for sharing and publishing the names of the ultimate beneficiaries of all corporate structures, including shell companies, trusts and foundations that can offer anonymity to their users.

德國財長沃爾夫岡•朔伊布勒（Wolfgang Schäuble，上圖右）和法國財長米歇爾•薩潘（Michel Sapin，上圖左）還強調，有必要共享和公佈包括殼公司、信託和基金會在內的、所有能夠幫助用戶隱匿身份的公司結構的最終受益者名單。

The German and French governments launched their plans in separate initiatives yesterday as Brussels prepares to announce proposals this week to force large EU-based companies to disclose their annual financial results on a country-by-country basis, including for offshore jurisdictions.

德法政府昨日分別推出了自己的計劃，歐盟準備本週公佈提案，強制總部位於歐盟的大公司按國別披露（包括單列出不同離岸司法管轄地的）年度財報。

“We need full transparency worldwide,” Mr Schäuble said as he released a plan entitled “Fighting effectively against tax cheating, tax evasion and money laundering.”

在公佈名爲“有效打擊稅務欺詐、逃稅和洗錢”的計劃的同時，朔伊布勒表示：“我們需要全球範圍內的完全透明。”

Both Mr Schäuble and Mr Sapin, who have led the way on previous global financial transparency projects, such as the automatic exchange of information between banks, want to seize the opportunity created by the Panama Papers leak to force through further reforms. Paris put Panama back on its own blacklist last week after removing it in 2012 and plans in the coming weeks to publish a list of ultimate beneficiaries of trusts and foundations with assets or beneficiaries in France.

朔伊布勒和薩潘是此前一些提高全球金融透明度的計劃的牽頭者，這些計劃包括銀行間自動信息交換計劃等。這兩人都希望抓住“巴拿馬文件”泄露創造的機會，推行進一步的改革。上週，法國重新將巴拿馬列入本國的黑名單（2012年它曾將巴拿馬移出黑名單），並計劃在未來幾周公布一份有資產或受益人在法國的信託和基金會的最終受益人名單。

The moves come in the wake of the embarrassing revelations last week showing the broad use of offshore entities by the world’s rich and powerful.

上週令人難堪的文件曝光事件顯示，全球富豪和權勢階層大量利用離岸實體。

Offshore jurisdictions are expected to rank high on the agenda of the twice-yearly meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington later this week.

國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)和世界銀行(World Bank)本週晚些時候將在華盛頓召開一年兩次的會議，預計離岸司法管轄地問題將被列爲重要議程。

Martin Jäger, Mr Schäuble’s spokesman, said that while individual countries — including Germany and France — already had the right to blacklist countries, the approach would succeed only with international co-operation. “It will only work if we find an international and if possible a global solution,” he said. Countries that condoned “serious criminality” could be “cut off from cash flows” through the Swift international banking network, he said.

朔伊布勒的發言人馬丁•雅格(Martin Jäger)表示，儘管單個國家（包括德國和法國）已經擁有把一些國家列入黑名單的權利，但這種做法只有藉助全球合作才能成功。他表示：“這種做法只有在我們找到國家間以及（有可能的話）全球性解決方案的情況下，才行得通。”他說，可以“切斷”縱容“嚴重犯罪行爲”的國家流經環球銀行金融電信協會(SWIFT)這個國際銀行業網絡的“現金流”。

The ministry’s blunt language signals Germany’s determination in building on two earlier EU initiatives — the 2014 international agreement on banks automatically exchanging information, which has been accepted by nearly 100 countries and comes into force next year; and the G20 pact on curtailing base erosion profit sharing (BEPS), which are methods used by multinational companies to cut their tax bills by switching profits to low-tax jurisdictions.

德國財政部的直白言辭表明，德國決心依託歐盟早先的兩個舉措，一個是2014年關於銀行間自動信息交換的國際協議，該協議已獲得近100個國家接受，將於明年生效；另一個是20國集團(G20)就限制“侵蝕稅基和轉移利潤”(BEPS)而簽署的協議，“侵蝕稅基和轉移利潤”是跨國公司將利潤轉移到低稅收司法管轄地從而實現避稅的方式。

In Germany, banks have given strong backing to Mr Schäuble’s plans. Hans-Walter Peters, the incoming chairman of the Association of German Banks and head of Hamburg-based Berenberg Bank, said misconduct must lead to sanctions. “Money laundering and tax evasion are absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

在德國，銀行業堅決支持朔伊布勒的計劃。總部位於漢堡的貝倫貝格銀行(Berenberg Bank)行長、即將出任德國銀行協會(Association of German Banks)主席的漢斯-瓦爾特•彼得斯(Hans-Walter Peters)表示，不當行爲必須受到懲罰。他說：“洗錢和避稅絕對是不可接受的。”

Jürgen Fitschen, the outgoing chairman and co-chief of Deutsche Bank, welcomed the finance minister’s plans for an international blacklist of tax havens, saying this would not only be good for the authorities but also for banks.

德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)即將離任的董事長兼聯席首席執行官于爾根•菲辰(Jürgen Fitschen)歡迎朔伊布勒擬定一份避稅地國際黑名單的計劃。他表示，這不僅有利於德國政府，還有利於銀行。

Mr Fitschen added that the Panama revelations were no surprise and that Panama was not alone. In Europe too, there was “homework to be done”, he said, citing the example of the Isle of Man as a European tax haven.

菲辰補充稱，關於巴拿馬的爆料內容並不令人意外，巴拿馬也並非個例。他說，在歐洲，我們同樣有“事情要做”，比如馬恩島(Isle of Man)就是歐洲的避稅地。