Regressive, Proportional, and Progressive Taxes

　　累退税，比例税和累进税

　　Taxes can also be categorized as either regressive, proportional, or progressive, and the distinction has to do with the behavior of the tax as the taxable base (such as a household's income or a business' profit) changes:

　　税收也可以分为累退型、比例型或累进型，这种区别与税基变化(如家庭收入或企业利润)时的纳税行为有关。

　　A regressive tax is a tax where lower-income entities pay a higher fraction of their income in taxes than do higher-income entities.

　　累退税是指低收入实体比高收入实体支付更高比例的税收。

　　A proportional tax (sometimes called a flat tax) is a tax where everyone, regardless of income, pays the same fraction of income in taxes.

　　比例税(有时称为固定税)，是指每个人，不论收入如何，都要缴纳相同比例的所得税。

　　A progressive tax is a tax where lower-income entities pay a lower fraction of their income in taxes than do higher-income entities.

　　累进税是一种低收入企业比高收入企业支付更低比例的税收。

　　Revenue Taxes versus Sin Taxes

　　收入税与罪恶税

　　The main function of most taxes is to raise revenue that the government can use to provide goods and services to the public.

　　大多数税收的主要功能是增加政府可以用来向公众提供商品和服务的收入。

　　Taxes that have this goal are referred to as "revenue taxes." Other taxes, however, are put in place not specifically to raise revenue but instead to correct for negative externalities, or "bad" behaviors, where production and consumption have negative side effects for society.

　　具有这种目的的税收被称为“收入税”。不过其他税收并不是专门用来增加收入的，而是用来纠正负外部性或“不良”行为，在这些行为中，生产和消费对社会具有负面影响。

　　Such taxes are often referred to as "sin taxes," but in more precise economic terms are known as "Pigovian taxes," named after e conomist Arthur Pigou.

　　这类税收通常被称为“罪恶税”，但在更精确的经济术语中被称为“庇古税”，以经济学家阿瑟•庇古的名字命名。

　　Because of their differing objectives, revenue taxes and sin taxes differ in their desired behavioral responses from producers and consumers.

　　由于目标不同，收入税和罪恶税在生产者和消费者期望的行为反应方面不同。

　　Revenue taxes, on one hand, are viewed as best or most efficient when people don't change their work or consumption behavior very much and instead let the tax just act as a transfer to the government. (A revenue tax is said to have low dead-weight loss in this case.)

　　一方面，当人们不太改变他们的工作或消费行为，而是只让税收作为向政府的转移时，收入税被认为是最好或最有效的。(据说，在这种情况下，税收具有较低的死重量损失。)

　　A sin tax, on the other hand, is viewed as best when it has a large effect on the behavior of producers and consumers, even if it doesn't raise very much money for the government.

　　另一方面，如果罪恶税对生产者和消费者的行为有很大影响，即使它没有为政府筹集到多少资金，它也被认为是最好的税。