For wealthy Americans looking to veil their assets and shield some of their income from taxation, there is no need to go to Panama or any other offshore tax haven. It’s easy to establish a shell corporation right here at home.

那些想要隐匿资产或者隐藏部分收入以达到逃税目的的美国有钱人，根本没必要去巴拿马或者其他离岸避税天堂。在美国本土开设壳公司是很容易的。

“In Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware, it’s possible to create these shell corporations with virtually no questions asked,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research organization in Washington.

“在怀俄明州、内华达州和特拉华州，都可以开设这类壳公司，几乎不会有人过问，”税收与经济政策研究所(Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy)执行理事马修·加德纳(Matthew Gardner)说。该研究所是华盛顿的一个非盈利研究机构。

In some places, it can be more difficult to get a fishing license than to register a shell company. And it doesn’t cost much more.

在某些地方，注册壳公司可能比获得捕捞许可证更容易。而且费用也不会高多少。

The Panama Papers — the cache of leaked documents from a Panama law firm, Mossack Fonseca — have revealed how thousands of the firm’s clients, including an array of powerful figures around the world, stashed billions of dollars in tax havens. So far only a tiny number of American names have surfaced (although that could change as more of the documents are reviewed).

从巴拿马律师事务所莫萨克-冯塞卡(Mossack Fonseca)泄露出来的一批秘密文件，即巴拿马文件，已经揭示了该律所数以千计的客户——包括世界各地许多极具影响力的人物——如何把数以十亿美元计的财富藏匿在避税天堂。到目前为止，被曝光的美国人的名字并不多（不过随着人们查阅更多的文件，情况可能发生变化）。

That in no way means that Americans citizens are refraining from such practices, experts emphasized.

专家强调，这并不意味着美国公民与此类做法绝缘。

“This is just one firm in one place,” said Gabriel Zucman, an economist and the author of “The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens,” “So it cannot be representative of what’s happening as a whole in the world.”

“这只不过是一个地方的一个公司，”著有《列国的隐藏财富：避税天堂之患》(The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens)的经济学家加布里埃尔·祖克曼(Gabriel Zucman)说，“因此它不能代表整个世界的现状。”

But Mr. Zucman, who estimates that about 8 percent of the world’s financial wealth — more than $7.6 trillion — is hidden in offshore accounts, said another reason was that it is so simple to create anonymous shell companies within the United States.

但祖克曼说，另一个原因是在美国境内开设匿名壳公司非常容易。他估计全世界约有8%的金融财富——超过7.6万亿美元——隐藏在离岸账户之中。

Wealthy individuals and businesses that want to mask their ownership can conveniently do so in the United States, and then stash those assets abroad.

想要隐藏财富的个人和企业，可以很方便地在美国这样做，然后再把那些资产藏匿到海外。

Yet while the United States demands that financial institutions in other countries share information about Americans with accounts overseas, its reciprocation efforts fall short, critics say.

批评人士称，尽管美国要求其他国家的金融机构与其分享关于拥有海外账户的美国人的信息，但它在礼尚往来方面做得还不够。

“You see a ton of wealth in tax havens in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands that is owned by shell companies that are incorporated in Panama or in Delaware,” he said. “The bulk of this wealth does not seem to be duly declared on tax returns.”

“你看到瑞士和开曼群岛的避税天堂里藏匿的大量财富，持有者都是在巴拿马或者特拉华州注册的壳公司，”他说。“这类财富中的绝大部分似乎并未按照规定进行纳税申报。”

A recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy called “Delaware: An Onshore Tax Haven” noted that the state’s lack of transparency combined with an enticing loophole in its tax code “makes it a magnet for people looking to create anonymous shell companies, which individuals and corporations can use to evade an inestimable amount in federal and foreign taxes.”

税收与经济政策研究所最近发布了一份报告，名为《特拉华州：在岸避税天堂》(Delaware: An Onshore Tax Haven)。报告称，特拉华州缺乏透明度，再加上该州税法中存在诱人的漏洞，“使得它成为了一块磁石，深深吸引着想要开设匿名壳公司的人，个人和企业可以利用这些壳公司逃掉应在美国和海外缴纳的税金，其数额难以估量。”

Delaware allows companies to shift royalties and similar revenues where they actually do business to holding companies in Delaware, where they are not taxed.

特拉华州允许企业将专利使用费及类似的收入从实际经营地转移到它们在该州的控股公司，而且不要求它们就这部分收入纳税。

Heather A. Lowe, the legal counsel and director of government affairs for Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy group in Washington, warned that the problem was much more widespread than just a handful of states.

华盛顿的研究及倡导团体全球金融诚信组织(Global Financial Integrity)的法律顾问兼政府事务负责人希瑟·洛(Heather Lowe)警告说，这一问题广泛存在，远远超出了几个州的范畴。

“You can create anonymous companies anywhere in the United States,” Ms. Lowe said. “The reason people know about Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming is because these states market themselves internationally.”

“你在美国的任何地方都可以开设匿名公司，”洛说。“人们之所以知道特拉华州、内华达州和怀俄明州，是因为这些州在国际上进行自我推销。”

Although individuals and businesses can have legitimate reasons to want to screen their holdings — for privacy or to prevent competitors from discovering investment plans — several experts said cloaking wrongdoing was a more common purpose.

尽管想要隐匿财富的个人和企业可能有合法的理由——为了保护隐私或者防止竞争对手发觉自己的投资计划——但一些专家称，掩盖不法行为才是常见的目的。

Aside from avoiding taxes, shell companies are routinely used by terrorist organizations to hide assets, by political donors to sidestep campaign finance laws and by criminals to launder money, Mr. Gardner said.

加德纳说，除了避税，壳公司还常常被恐怖分子组织用来隐匿资产，被政治捐款人用来绕开竞选财务法，被罪犯用来洗钱。

The Treasury Department indicated this week that it planned to require financial institutions to verify the identities of customers who set up accounts in the names of shell companies, thus closing a loophole in the American banking system that thwarts transparency efforts.

财政部在本周表示，他们计划要求金融机构核实那些以壳公司的名义开设账户的客户身份，以添补美国银行系统中妨碍透明度的漏洞。

The Treasury also recently began a program that tracks people who use shell companies to purchase expensive real estate in New York and Miami.

财政部同样在最近开启了一个项目，以追踪那些使用壳公司去购买位于纽约和迈阿密的昂贵房产的人群。

But the new rules would not affect state law.

但是新的规定并不会影响到各州法规。

John A. Cassara, a former special agent for the Treasury Department, said that American and foreign law enforcement officials conducting investigations were regularly stymied by state secrecy laws surrounding shell corporations.

约翰·A·卡萨拉(John A. Cassara)曾是财政部的特工。他说，美国和其他外国的执法官员在进行调查的过程中，常常会受到围绕在壳公司周围的保密法规的阻碍。

“If somebody is conducting an investigation and it comes back to a Delaware company and you want to find who or what is behind that company, you basically strike out,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the F.B.I., at the federal level, state or local. Even the Department of Justice can’t get the information. There is nothing you can do.”

“如果有人在进行一项调查，找到了一家特拉华的公司，从而想找出这家公司背后的人或者组织，你基本上就走进死胡同了，”他说。“无论调查的一方是不是FBI，无论是联邦级别、州级还是地方级，都无济于事。甚至连司法部都无法获取那些信息。你什么都做不了。”

“Why incorporate in Nevada?” the state’s website advertised in 2007. “Minimal reporting and disclosing requirements. Stockholders are not public record.”

“为什么在内华达州组成公司？”该州的网站在2007年这样宣传道。“因为这里有最低限度的申报和信息披露要求。没有股东的公开记录。”

Mossack Fonseca, the Panama law firm, set up offices in Nevada and Wyoming.

巴拿马律师事务所莫萨克-冯塞卡(Mossack Fonseca)就在内华达州和怀俄明州成立了办事处。

After revelations came to light about Americans using Swiss bank accounts to evade taxes, the United States in 2010 passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which requires financial firms in other countries to disclose details about American clients with offshore accounts.

在美国人使用瑞士银行账户进行逃税的行为被披露后，美国在2010年通过了《海外账户纳税法案》(Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act)，该法案要求外国的金融企业披露设立了离岸账户的美国客户的相关细节。

Yet the United States is one of the few countries that has refused to sign new international standards for exchanging similar financial information with other countries.

为数不多的国家拒绝签署与其他国家交换类似的金融信息的新国际标准，美国是其中之一。

Another country that has failed to sign the standards? Panama.

还有哪一个国家同样拒绝了签署新的标准？巴拿马。