资本利得税（CGT）被广泛视为一种潜在的增收手段，因为财政大臣约翰·希利正准备在下个月推出一份艰难的预算案。它是如何运作的？进一步提高税率的利弊何在？什么是资本利得税？
Capital gains tax (CGT) has been widely cited as a possible revenue-raiser as the chancellor, John Healey, prepares to deliver a tough budget next month. How does it work, and what are the pros and cons of raising it further? What is CGT?
当你出售一项资产——无论是股票、企业还是出租房产——你都需要就自购买以来的价值增值部分缴纳资本利得税。情况并非完全如此简单：你可以通过扣除其他投资的亏损以及改良房产的投资成本来减少应纳税额。但本质上，这是一种针对资产出售时实现的利润征收的税。
When you sell an asset – whether it’s a share, a business, or a buy-to-let property – you pay capital gains on the uplift in its value since you bought it It’s not quite that simple: you can reduce your CGT bill by deducting losses made on other investments, and the costs of investing in improving a property. But essentially, it’s a tax on the profits realised when an asset is sold.
目前，基本税率纳税人的资本利得税率为18%，高税率纳税人为24%。还有一个更高的税率，即32%，适用于通过一种名为“分红利息”的有争议制度以利润分成形式获取收入的金融城基金经理人。
The rate of CGT is now 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher-rate taxpayers. There’s an even higher rate, of 32%, for City fund managers who take their earnings as a share of profits in a controversial system called “carried interest”.
自2024年工党执政以来，所有这些税率均大幅上调，因为前任财政大臣蕾切尔·里夫斯选择加重对财富的征税——例如，基本税率此前为10%。
All those rates have gone up significantly since Labour came to power in 2024, as Rachel Reeves, the previous chancellor, chose to tax wealth more heavily – the basic rate was previously 10%, for example.
英国税务海关总署（HMRC）的最新数据显示，由于这些及其他变化（包括上届保守党政府开始削减资本利得税免税额度），2024-25财年的资本利得税收入增长了89%。谁在呼吁提高资本利得税？
Recent data from HMRC showed the take from CGT was up 89% in 2024-25 as a result of these and other changes, which have also included cuts to the tax-free personal allowance for CGT, begun under the last Conservative government. Who is calling for CGT to rise?
智库和左翼政界人士认为，以低于工资收入的税率对持有资产的收益征税是不公平的。（例如，所得税基本税率为20%。）另一个论点——由财政研究所（IFS）提出——是这会扭曲行为：例如激励人们将资产留在企业内部。
Thinktanks and politicians across the left have argued that it is unfair to tax the gains from holding an asset at a lower rate than a salary that has been earned by working. (The basic rate of income tax is 20%, for example.) Another argument – advanced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) – is that it distorts behaviour: incentivising people to hold on to assets inside a business, for example.
早在5月，当时韦斯·斯特林有意角逐工党党魁时，他称资本利得税为“行之有效的财富税”——以此与开征全新税种的前景形成对比。
Back in May, when Wes Streeting had his eye on the Labour leadership, he called CGT“the wealth tax that works” – in contrast with the prospect of setting up an entirely new tax.
鉴于斯特林在工党内属于右翼立场，他对提高这一关键税率的支持，凸显了这一观点在党内已多么普遍。
Given Streeting’s position towards the right of the Labour party, his backing for higher rates of the key tax underlined how widespread the view is within the party.
首席秘书路易丝·海格在接任安迪·伯纳姆内阁中这一权力职位前，曾在期刊《Renewal》撰文主张，资本利得税税率应“向所得税税率靠拢”。
The first secretary, Louise Haigh, argued in an article in the journal Renewal, before she took on her powerful role in Andy Burnham’s cabinet, that CGT rates should be “brought closer to income tax rates”.
她表示，这一变革对于“将税收负担从惩罚劳动转向对鲜有助于实体经济增长的非生产性资本积累征税”是必要的。
She said such a change was necessary to “shift the taxation burden away from punishing work, and towards unproductive capital accumulation which does little to grow the everyday economy”.
主张将资本利得税税率与所得税税率拉齐的其他支持者还包括公共政策研究所（IPPR）、华威大学税收分析中心、决议基金会以及英国工会大会（TUC）。有哪些弊端？
Other advocates of equalising CGT and income tax rates include the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation at Warwick University (CenTax), the Resolution Foundation, and the TUC. What are the downsides?
商业游说团体认为，提高资本利得税税率会抑制英国实现更强劲经济增长所需的那种生产性投资。
Business lobby groups argue that higher rates of CGT would disincentivise just the kind of productive investment the UK needs to generate stronger economic growth.
正如英国商会政策副主任莱娜·利维所言：“关于下个月预算案中资本利得税变动的猜测，只会增加那些寻求投资、发展或出售企业的人所面临的巨大不确定性。英国的资本利得税税率已经高于经合组织（OECD）20%的平均水平。” 另一次增税的前景——连同自2024年以来的一系列其他税制改革——也被引述为高净值人士可能选择离开英国的原因之一。
As Lena Levy, the deputy director of policy at the British Chamber of Commerce, puts it: “Speculation over changes to capital gains tax in next month’s budget is only adding to the huge uncertainty for people looking to invest, grow or sell a business. The UK’s capital gains taxes are already above the OECD average of 20%.”The prospect of another rise – along with a slew of other tax reforms since 2024 – is also cited as one reason that high net worth individuals might choose to leave the UK.
人们也担心，一些富裕个人将能够通过其他形式的避税来规避新的更高税率，从而削弱其作为筹集收入策略的有效性。这些陷阱能否避免？
And there would be fears, too, that some wealthy individuals would be able to dodge the new higher rates through other forms of tax avoidance, undermining it as a revenue-raising strategy. Are the pitfalls avoidable?
支持拉齐税率者认为可以：CenTax的阿伦·阿德瓦尼教授表示，如果不改革“税基”——即决定征税对象的规则——仅提高资本利得税税率是毫无意义的。他建议在提高资本利得税税率的同时，实施一揽子改革措施。
Fans of equalisation say yes: Prof Arun Advani, of CenTax, says there’s no point just raising CGT rates without reforming the “base” – the rules that determined what it is charged on. He suggests a package of reforms to be implemented alongside a rise in CGT rates.
除了让制度更加公平，这些措施的目的还在于防止潜在税收流失——例如，对移居海外的富人征收“离境税”，以及取消目前适用于继承资产的免税政策。
As well as making the system fairer, the aim of these would be to prevent potential revenues leaking out – with an “exit tax” levied when wealthy individuals move elsewhere, for example, and by removing the exemption that now applies to inherited assets.
这些变革还旨在更好地激励生产性投资，方法是引入“投资免税额”，这意味着仅对超过全经济资产通胀总体水平的收益征收资本利得税。
And the changes would also be intended to incentivise productive investment better, by including an “investment allowance” that would mean CGT was only paid on gains made over and above the general rate of asset inflation across the economy.
这些及其他资本利得税改革已被广泛讨论——例如，早在2011年，英国税制权威的IFS米尔利斯审查就曾推荐过其中的一个版本。
These and other CGT reforms have been widely discussed – a version of them was recommended in the IFS’s authoritative Mirrlees review of the UK tax system way back in 2011, for example.
但在2024年，里夫斯选择了更简单的折中方案，仅提高税率。希利可以照做，也可以等到明年春季的预算案再进行更全面的改革。希利还有哪些增税选项？
But in 2024, Reeves opted for the simpler halfway house of just raising the rates. Healey could do the same, or wait until the budget next spring to undertake more comprehensive reform. What are Healey’s other tax-raising options?
最直接的将是那些大额税源——所得税、国民保险金或增值税。例如，预计今年所得税将带来约3300亿英镑收入，而资本利得税约为220亿英镑。
The most straightforward would be the big money-raisers – income tax, national insurance or VAT. Income tax is expected to raise about £330bn this year, for example; capital gains tax roughly £22bn.
然而，伯纳姆已排除违背工党宣言中“不动这三大税种”承诺的可能性，因此如果希利想增税，就必须另寻出路。
Burnham has ruled out breaking the Labour manifesto promise to leave these untouched, however, so if Healey wants to raise taxes he would have to look elsewhere.
其他备受讨论的可能性包括征收银行暴利税，或调整里夫斯即将推出的“豪宅税”，使其覆盖更多房产、及/或适用更高税率。他必须增税吗？
Other much-discussed possibilities include a bank windfall tax, or tweaking Reeves’s upcoming “mansion tax” so that it applies to more homes, and/or at a higher rate. Does he have to raise taxes?
这取决于预算责任办公室（OBR）认为希利偏离工党财政规则有多远，以及他愿意接受多大的合规边际。
It depends on how far off course the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) believes Healey is from meeting Labour’s fiscal rules, and how slim a margin against those rules he is willing to accept.
而这关键取决于OBR如何解读一系列近期数据——特别是令人咋舌的高能源价格，这也令政府债券市场惊慌，推高了借贷成本。
And that depends crucially on how the OBR interprets a slew of recent data – in particular, eye-wateringly high energy prices that have also spooked government bond markets and driven up the cost of borrowing.
知情人士透露，预算案的关注点将相对聚焦——例如财政下放——而一些重大决策，比如英国何时应以GDP的3%作为国防开支目标，将推迟至2027年决定。
Treasury insiders suggest the budget will be relatively narrowly focused – on fiscal devolution, for example – with some big decisions, such as when the UK should aim to be spending 3% of GDP on defence, deferred into 2027.
但如果财政预测特别严峻，或者政府决定采取更激进的行动以缓冲即将到来的能源账单上涨对消费者的冲击，10月28日的声明仍可能变得更具变革性。若是这种情况，资本利得税（CGT）可能会成为一个显而易见的调控杠杆。
But a particularly bleak fiscal forecast, or a decision to take more drastic action to cushion consumers from looming energy bill rises, could yet prompt a more radical statement on 28 October. In that case, CGT may seem like an obvious lever to pull.