Jack Lew, US Treasury secretary, has urged Congress to crack down on merger deals in which companies seek to redomicile overseas to reduce their US taxes, invoking the need for “economic patriotism” in reversing a practice that has flourished in recent months.
美国财长杰克•卢(Jack Lew)督促美国国会打击一些并购交易，在这些交易中，企业希望将其注册地转移到海外，以降低他们在美国的缴税，最近几个月这类交易不断增多，引发了“经济爱国主义”被付诸实施的需要。
In a letter to Dave Camp, the Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Mr Lew said US lawmakers should pass measures to stamp out “inversions”, which were contained in the Obama administration’s most recent budget proposal and later embraced by senior Democrats on Capitol Hill.
在写给负责税收政策的国会众议院筹款委员会(house ways and means committee)共和党主席戴夫•坎贝(Dave Camp)的一封信中，卢表示，美国立法者应通过立法打击“税收倒置行为”(inversions)，这些包括在奥巴马政府最近的预算提案之中，后来得到了国会高级民主党人的支持。
Mr Lew said the tax change should take effect retroactively to May 2014 – the time when Pfizer, the US drugs company, was considering a relocation to the UK in conjunction with its $106bn bid for AstraZeneca, a British rival, that ultimately collapsed.
卢表示，税收改革的施行应回溯到2014年5月，当时美国制药公司辉瑞(Pfizer)正考虑将注册地迁往英国，这与该公司以1060亿美元竞购英国竞争对手阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)的计划相关，后来这一收购计划流产。
“Congress should enact legislation immediately . . . to shut down this abuse of our tax system,” Mr Lew wrote in the letter to Mr Camp, which was obtained by the Financial Times on Tuesday. “What we need as a nation is a new sense of economic patriotism, where we all rise and fall together,” Mr Lew wrote.
“国会应立即实行立法……停止这种滥用税收体系的做法，”卢在写给坎贝的信中写道，“作为一个国家，我们需要具备一种新的经济爱国主义意识，我们共同起落。”英国《金融时报》周二看到了这封信。
Mr Lew’s letter on Tuesday was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. It follows plans revealed this week by Mylan, the US generic drugmaker, to move to the Netherlands through its purchase of Abbott Labs’ European generics drugs unit.
《华尔街日报》周二首先报道了卢的这封信。在此之前，美国仿制药制造商迈兰制药公司(Mylan)本周公布计划，将通过收购雅培制药(Abbott Lab)欧洲仿制药业务，将公司注册地迁往荷兰。
The most high-profile tax inversion planned by a US company, which ultimately failed, was Pfizer’s effort to buy AstraZeneca this year, which increased scrutiny of such transactions in Congress and stoked debate among many US corporate tax executives, economists and lobbyists.
美国公司策划的最为高调的“税收倒置”行为是辉瑞今年试图收购阿斯利康的计划（最终失败），这使美国国会加强了对此类交易的审查，并在美国很多企业高管、经济学家和游说者中间引发了辩论。
Driving US companies away from US shores is the corporate tax rate of 35 per cent, one of the highest in the developed world, and the treatment of foreign earnings, which are subject to US taxes when they are repatriated to America.
推动美国公司迁往海外的是美国35%的公司税率（为发达国家最高之列）以及对海外收益的处置，当这些收益汇回到美国时需向美国缴税。
Both the Obama administration and congressional Republicans have plans to overhaul the US corporate tax system entirely to make it more globally competitive, but they have been unable to agree on many of the details, leaving the door wide open for inversions to keep occurring.
奥巴马政府和国会中的共和党人都计划彻底改革美国公司税体系，令其在全球更具竞争力，但他们未能就很多细节达成一致，这让投资者有机会利用这一漏洞。