外文翻译税务会计.doc

Tax AccountingTax accounting is a branch of accounting that involves determining the correct liability-that is, the amount owed-for taxes, and preparing the necessary tax-return forms.Income taxes are a major concern to businesses as well as to individuals. Unfortunately, businessmen themselves often do not understand the tax laws, and they must therefore depend on the advice of tax accountants and lawyers. A tax accountant must have a thorough knowledge of the tax code of his or her country and of any divisions within it that have the power to levy, or impose, taxes.It is easy to appreciate the impact of income taxes on business. Careful planning designed to decrease the tax liability to the lowest level is thus a major concern of business. This planning is made possible by various provisions in the tax laws that offer alternative methods for handling particular transactions or accounting procedures. One alternative may thus have a significant tax advantage over another, resulting in either a tax saving, or postponement of the tax liability. A business can pay substantially more taxes than necessary if the wrong financial decision is made. Among these potentially significant decisions might be included the form of business under which to organize, whether or not to set up multiple corporations, and which accounting methods should be used to deal with inventory and depreciation.CHOOSING THE RIGHT FORM OF ORGANIZATION . There are three major forms of business ownership: the single proprietorship, the partnership, and the corporation. Tax laws vary considerably for each of these. In the case of both the individual proprietorship and partnership forms of business, income is taxed to the individual proprietor or partners. The owners of these businesses therefore pay the progressive income tax rate for individuals on their business income. A progressive income tax is one that charges a higher rate for higher earnings.Corporations, on the other hand, are subject to a tax on their profits, while the stockholders of a corporation are also taxed at the individual rates on the dividends they receive from these profits. Dividends are paid out of the corporations earnings. The corporation is not allowed a deduction for the dividends it pays out when its taxable income is computed. This results in double taxation of the corporations income.In certain eases, the double tax is eliminated or reduced under special provisions of the tax laws. Under one provision, the taxpayer receives a dividend exemption (income not subject to taxation) up to $ 100 for dividends received during the tax year. Another provision allows a corporation to be taxed as partnership if it meets the following requirements for a small business:(a)It is a domestic, rather than a foreign corporation.(b)It has no more than fifteen stockholders.(c)All the stockholders are didferent people.(d)No stockholder is a nonresident alien.(e)There is only one class of stock.While the small-business corporation can save a great deal in taxes by being taxed as partnership, it keeps the other nontax advantages, such as limited liability.Other income tax advantages often encourage the corporate form of organization. One of these is the possibility of selling the business or liquidating it; that is, of going out of business and disposing of the assets. When this occurs, it is possible to obtain long-term capital-gains treatment. A long-term capital gain is a profit on the sale of a capital asset that has been owned for a specified period. Long-term capital gains get preferential tax treatment-that is, half the rate applied to other kinds of income. A second possible tax advantage of the corporate structure is the deferral or postponement of double taxation by simply not paying dividends. A third is the flexibility that comes from being able to time the distribution of earnings so that they occur during the years in which the owners have the lowest tax liability. A fourth advantage is income splitting. This is a provision of the tax laws that allows the owner of a corporation to divide dividend payments from the corporation among members of his family by having each one own some of the stock. A fifth possible advantage is related to fringe benefits, such as group life insurance, medical payment plans, and wage continuation plans, that provide for full or partial payment of wages and salary to the employees during sickness. Many of these fringe benefits are encouraged in the tax laws by allowing deferred tax payments.CHOOSING THE RIGHT ACCOUNTING METHODS. The choice of one method or procedure over the possible alternatives can lead to a tax advantage.Some methods of accounting for depreciation offer a tax advantage. For example, in the declining-balance method, a greater percentage of the cost of a fixed asset is figured for the earlier years of the life of the asset. The result is that part of the tax liability is deferred until later years.There is also a special tax credit for investment in most kinds of depreciable assets, with the exception of buildings that are acquired and placed in service. This credit was instituted as means of stimulating new investment in productive facilities.There are also different accounting methods for the inventory, commonly known as Fifo and Lifo. The Lifo method may be better from a tax standpoint since this method results in a lower tax liability in a period of rising prices. Under Lifo, the higher-priced goods are depreciated in the accounting period.A tax advantage also exists for businesses-that sell merchandise for personal use. These sales are often made on the installment basis, with payments spread over a period of weeks, months, or perhaps even years. For tax purposes, it is permissible to report the profit from sales during the years in which the actual payments are made rather than during the year of the original sale.A tax advantage is also available to the holders of most depletive assets-those which are used up, or depleted, over a period of time-like oil, natural gas, uranium, or coal. The taxpayer who owns assets of this kind is allowed a deduction on the gross income derived from the asset. The deduction is known as a depletion allowance; because of the economic importance of many of the depletive assets, the percentages allowed to the taxpayer are of great political concern.ACCOUNTING FOR INCOME TAXES. The basic accounting procedure for computing income taxes is relatively simple. The final or estimated tax liability is charged to the Income Tax Expense account and is deducted on the income statement. The liability is credited to the Estimated Income Taxes Payable account and is then classified as a current liability on the statement of financial position. There are, however, accounting problems that arise in regard to income taxes. These problems result from differences in the amount of taxable income and the amount of income reported on the income statement. This may result from the use of different accounting methods for tax purposes.CHINAS TAX SYSTEM. The well-to-do in China have snubbed their government. In 2007 for the first time, anyone earning more than 120,000 yuan ($15,000) annually is supposed to file a personal income-tax return. Yet by the deadline of April 2nd(extended by a couple of days because of low compliance), only a small minority had done so. Threats of massive fines have gone unheeded.The governments embarrassment was evident when it missed its own deadline of April 10th for announcing the total tally of tax returns completed. But officials have estimated the number is around 1.6m. The number of those required to file is widely reported to be 6m-7m and could well be much higher. Those who have done so already are mostly wage earners who have tax deducted from their salaries and feel they have no option but to report their incomes because they are already in the tax authorities records.A big difficulty for tax officials is that even some of the governments own media have broken ranks and suggested that the middle classes obvious disdain for the new requirement may not be unreasonable. Confusingly, the annual tax return does not supersede an existing monthly requirement to report and pay tax on non-tax income if total earnings exceed a certain threshold. A newspaper run by the state prosecutors office argue that the tax administration had no legal authority to fine people for failing to fill out returns relating to income on which they had already paid tax.But very few bother to pay personal income tax unless it is deducted automatically. As some Chinese newspapers have pointed out, this is partly because many Chinese believed they get little in return for their taxes. They have to pay through the nose for health care and for decent education for their children. They are also resentful that few officials pay tax, even though many have big incomes from shady dealings.Even the words “no taxation without representation” have found their way into print, in an article in the “information times”, a government owned newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou. Noting that half of the delegates to Chinas legislature were officials, the newspaper reported that commentators had pointed out that the parliament should have “fewer officials and more taxpayers”: an interesting distinction suggesting the taxman has struck a raw nerve.税务会计税务会计是会计的一个分支，其主要内容是如何确定正确的税务负债数额，编制纳税申报单。所得税不论对企业还是对个人都是关系重大的一个事项。但遗憾的是企业家本身往往不懂税法，他们必须依赖于税务会计和律师们的建议。一个税务会计师必须对本国的税法有彻底的理解，并且要了解有权课税的有关部门。我们很容易看清楚所得税对企业经营的影响，因此企业所关心的一个主要问题就是如何进行税务规划，将应付税款降低到最小数额。做税务规划是十分必要的，因为税法中有不同的条款，这些不同的条款给企业处理某些经济业务提供了多种方法可供选择，这种处理方法可能较之于另一种处理方法在纳税方面有很大的优越性，表现为纳税节省或延后纳税。如果企业做出了错误的财务决策，可能就要多支付很多不必要的税款。在这方面，企业需要作出的重要决策包括：以何种形式组建企业，是否建立多分支机构、多种经营的股份有限公司，选择什么方法去处理存货和折旧。选择恰当的企业组织形式 企业的组织形式主要有三种：独资企业、合伙企业和股份有限公司，适用于这三种组织形式的税法规定有很大的差别。对于独资企业和合伙企业来说，只针对独资企业的业主和合伙企业的合伙人征收所得税，他们从企业所获得的收入要按累进税率缴纳所得税。所谓累进所得税就是收入越高，所使用的所得税率就越高。股份有限公司要按公司的收入计算缴纳所得税，同时，股份邮箱公司的股东从企业分的的股利还需按个人累进计算缴纳所得税。公司当然是用公司的收入支付股利，在计算应纳税所得额时，公司可不可以将其已经支付的股利从收入中扣除，因此，公司的收入实际上就承受了双重课税。在某些特定的情况下，按税法的某些具体的条款，可以避免双重纳税。有一项条款规定，纳税人在纳税年度可以享受限额为100美元的免税股利；还有一项条款规定，如果股份有限公司满足下列适用于小企业的一些条件，就可以按合伙企业形式计算缴纳所得税：（1） 股份公司是一个国内企业，不是一个外国企业；（2） 股份公司的股东不超过15人；（3） 全部股东由不同的人员组成；（4） 股东中没有外国人；（5） 公司只发行一种股票。这类小型的股份有限公司由于按合伙企业组织形式所得税，可以节约大量的税款，同时他们还享受了其他非税务方面的优越性，如有限的责任等。在交纳所得税方面，股份有限公司的组织形式也有一些优越性，其中之一就是可以将公司卖掉或清算掉，也就是让公司解体，将资产处理掉。发生这种情况时，公司可能获得长期资本收益待遇。长期资本收益是指企业出售置存了一定期限的固定资产所获得的利润。长期资本收益可以享受优惠的纳税待遇，那就是，适用税率要比其他收入低一半；第二个可能利用的优越性是公司可以通过不支付股利的手段延迟双重纳税；第三个优越性是公司可以灵活地计划股利的发放时间，在股东们所得税负最低的年份里分配利润；第四个优越性是收益分割，所得税法中有一项条款允许股东将其从股份有限公司中所获得的股利收入在其家庭成员中进行分配，手段是让每位家庭成员都持有一些股票；第五个优越性与职工福利金有关，如职工集体人寿保险费、医疗费支付计划、连续工资计划，即在职工生病期间支付全额或部分工资，这些都属于职工资福利金。税法中对许多这类职工福利金允许延期支付税款。选择正确的会计核算方法 在可供选择的方法中选择恰当的会计方法和程序，也能带来纳税方面的利益。有些折旧方法就能在纳税方面有利可图。比如，适用余额递减折旧法，在固定资产使用周期内的头几年，资产成本转化为费用的比例就大。这样做的结果是：企业可以延缓交纳一部分所得税，即在固定资产使用周期的以后几年才支付。对投放于大多数使用中的应计折旧的固定资产方面的投资业享受税额减免，只是建筑物除外。这种减免是为了鼓励在生产性设施方面增加新的投资。对于存货的会计核算业有不同的方法，即人们所熟悉的先进先出法和后进先出法。从纳税的角度来说，后进先出法更优越一些，因为在价格上升时期，采用这种存货的核算方法可降低所得税税负，因为在后进先出法下，价格较高的存货成本在当期转化为费用。对于