老外也吐槽納稅 如何用英語說報稅

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

在這個世界上沒有任何事是絕對的，除了死亡和稅收。

So wrote Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, to his friend in 1789. Since then, it has become a proverb in the English Language. Many people would agree with this saying. We cannot escape death and unless we wish to break the law, we cannot escape taxes either.

這是美國開國元勳Benjamin Franklin 於1789年寫給他的朋友的。自此，這句話就成了一句諺語。很多人都同意這種說法。我們不能逃避死亡，我們也不能逃避稅收，除非我們違背法律。

This rather sobering (serious) thought has been on my mind in the last 10 days as I have been preparing all the necessary paperwork to complete my tax return. And while I was doing what can be a most boring task, I thought that this would be a good topic to share with you. You may disagree with me, but as we all have to pay our taxes why not talk about it in English?

過去十天，當我一直需要準備必要的文件完成納稅申報單時，這個相當發人深省的想法便縈繞心頭。雖然我正在做的工作非常枯燥，但是我認爲這可能是個可以同你一起分享的很好的話題。你可能不同意我的觀點，但是既然我們都必須付稅，那麼我們爲什麼不用英語談論它呢？

As a freelance English Language Teacher, I am registered with the Tax Office as self-employed. This is the opposite of being an employee who is employed by a company (employer).

作爲一個兼職英語老師，我作爲個體戶在稅務局登記。這同那些被公司（僱主）聘用的員工相反。

In the UK, an employee’s income is taxed at source which means that their employer deducts tax from their gross salary and pays the tax on their behalf. What they receive in their payslip is the net monthly salary. So, gross is before tax and net is after tax. When I refer to tax, I mean income tax.

在英國，員工的收入已先行扣除了所得稅，這意味着僱主從他們的總薪水中扣除了所得稅並且也交付了他們需要交的一部分稅費。他們工資單上得到的是淨月薪。因此，稅前是總收入，稅後是淨收入。當我說到稅收時，我指的是個人所得稅。

By contrast, a self-employed person receives gross income. My clients pay my fees after I send them an invoice. The money I receive is gross and has not been taxed. What I have to do is add up all the income I have received in the year and calculate the tax that I have to pay on my annual income.

相比之下，個體戶得到是稅前總收入。我把發票送給客戶後，他們就會付給我費用。我收到的錢是總的稅前收入，沒有扣過稅的。我需要做的事情是把這一年收到的所有錢加起來，然後計算我的年度收入需要支付的稅費。

Before calculating the tax, I can take into account any business expenses I have incurred during the year and deduct them from my income. I also have a personal tax allowance that I can apply to my gross income. A personal allowance is the amount each individual can earn in a year free of tax. For example, the first £10,000 I earn this tax year will be tax-free!

在計算稅費前，我可以把這一年內所有的業務花費都考慮進來，然後從總收入中扣除掉這部分費用。我也可以把個人免稅額申請到我的總收入中去。個人免稅額是每個人每年都可以獲得的。例如，我首次掙的£10,000 本納稅年度將免稅。

I have a tax accountant who helps me with my annual tax returns. What he does is to find out what allowances I can claim, what expenses I can deduct from my income and finally, he calculates the tax I have to pay. What I need to do is to prepare all the necessary paperwork he needs to do his job.

我有個稅務會計，他幫我處理年度納稅申報表。他需要做的就是找出哪些津貼我可以領取，哪些支出可以從我的收入中扣除，最後，他需要計算出我需要償付的稅費。我需要做的就是準備他完成這些工作所需要的所有的必要文件。

So, I need to keep all relevant receipts and print off all my invoices and bills. I then have to prepare an Excel spreadsheet that shows very clearly all the income and expenses I have incurred each month under different sub-headings. I have to number all the receipts so that my accountant can tick them off against each you can imagine, this is an extremely time-consuming and boring task! If I were super organised, I would do this task at the end of each month instead of wasting nearly a week at the end of the tax year getting everything ready! (I plan to be better organised from now on).

因此，我需要保存所有相關的收據，並且打印所有的發票和賬單。然後我必須準備一個電子數據表格，在不同的小標題下面非常清晰明瞭地列出每個月的所有收入和支出。我必須給所有的收據編號，以使會計能夠很快找到它們。可想而知，這是極度耗時、枯燥乏味的工作！如果我是一個超級有條理的人，那麼我會在每個月底做這些事情，而不是年度納稅前浪費將近一個星期來準備所有的這些事情！（我打算從現在開始變得更加有計劃性）。

After my accountant has done the calculations, he sends me my accounts for my approval. Once I have approved them by signing them off, he completes and submits the tax return online. I will then receive notification from the Tax Office confirming receipt of my return and they will inform me when I have to pay the tax owed.

會計完成這些計算後，他會把賬戶信息發給我審覈。一旦我簽名同意後，他就在網上完成和遞交納稅申報單。然後我會收到來自稅務局關於我的申報單的通知，當我需要交納欠的個人所得稅時，他們會通知我。

I am so relieved I have completed all the paperwork and finally sent my tax return off to my accountant. I can now concentrate on doing much more fun things – until I receive my tax bill, of course!

當我完成所有的文件，最終把稅務申報表發給會計時，頓時輕鬆了不少。現在我可以集中精力做更多有趣的事-當然！直到我收到我的賬單。