2012年9月高级口译考试--下半场阅读第1篇(2)

In fact, tax avoidance is a widespread middle-class activity. The heroine of the instinctive tax cheaters is surely Leona Helmsley, the American real estate entrepreneur who became known as the Queen of Mean. She was convicted of federal tax evasion and other crimes in 1989. The turning point in her trial came when a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Mrs Helmsley say: "We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes..."

　　Middle-class tax dodgers rely upon the oft-quoted legal opinion that "anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the Treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike, and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

　　To which my reply is that paying the tax that is due is a moral duty. If you don’t pay, the little people will have to pay more. Judging from what Mr Redknapp told the court during his lengthycross-examinations, he was on the side of the little people and not remotely interested in the weasel manoeuvres of the men in suits.

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