User Comments - podster

Posted on: 美元与人民币

Posted on: 美元与人民币

yikes121212,

我相信 资本流向让我们知道资本有什么方向。 比如说 "美国资本流向墨西哥。 US capital flows to Mexico."

Capital flow : 资本流量

Capital movement: 资本流动

Posted on: Chinese Baijiu and the Best of the Worst

I usually associate 咱们 with suggestions; "let's do this." Obviously the applications are broader, but this helps me remember that 咱们 is something I only use when addressing my group or counterpart who are/is included in what I am saying, not somebody to whom the suggestion does not apply. 咱们喝白酒吧! (said to my cronies.) 我们喝白酒。 (said to the waiter).

Posted on: Chinese Baijiu and the Best of the Worst

我没听说“two pot screamer" 呢。 （我是美国人） 意思是不是喝了一瓶这个白酒你会感觉你喝了两个锅的酒？

Posted on: Chinese Baijiu and the Best of the Worst

二锅头 = "two pot heads" ?

I think CPod is just being socially responsible by putting the poison symbol on. (Let's see if it stays).

Posted on: Chinese Baijiu and the Best of the Worst

口感 would literally be "mouth feel" I suppose, which is actually a term in English, though technical jargon from the world of "foodies" and food scientists, I think.  But from the context I think it just means "flavor" in this lesson.  Can baijiu be differentiated by texture?  I think beer could, but baijiu?  

Posted on: Marco Polo in China

I was much amused about the "MPS" diagnosis.  It reminded me of something I saw written about a year ago by an investment strategist visiting China:

"Everyone is now a China expert.  Wherever I go I am regaled with "China - my personal part in its inevitable rise."

Posted on: Concern over a Love Letter

你 would not be ambiguous if the addressee is receiving a private letter, right? I mean, if its a girl she knows she's a girl. When is 妳 ever used anyway? In direct quotation? It's certainly not as universal as the distinction between 他 （男） / 她 （女）。

Posted on: Taxable Salary

In the US there is not any tax break for renters, at least not on federal income tax (as far as I know) but home buyers can deduct the cost of their mortgage interest from their taxable income.

As for "padding expenses" its probably a universal way to cheat on taxes. It seems odd that the Chinese system would facilitate it by minting 发票 for whoever asks, since the government would apparently come out the loser, even after collecting the 发票 税。

According to our tax authorities, tax evasion is illegal, but tax avoidance is not. US corporations have been paying a falling share of the total tax burden and a falling percentage of their pre-tax income over the years. You may have seen how Google and others pay very low tax rates with elaborate cross-border structures:

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/2010-12-28/

Posted on: Taxable Salary

Ouch, my head is hurting on this one too. It seems abundantly clear that the employee is being counseled to evade his taxes (that’s the对策 ) , given the context. I also got hung up on the term “reimbursement” since only the word 发票 appears in the dialog. 外籍员工可以提供租房发票 . . . . . . 抵扣部分个人所得税。According to the translation this means the company can pay for the employee’s housing, but by mistake I read it to mean that the employee can provide a receipt for his own rent expense to get the deduction. The English translation has the words “we” (meaning the company) and “reimbursement” but I don’t see them in Chinese. It says 提供租房发票 (provide a rent receipt), not provide rent (提供租房). ???

It does not seem to me that the company is reimbursing anything. There is no increase to his gross income. The only difference is that he is lowering his taxable income by the amount of the rent as shown on his overstated receipt. (I’m not sure where the specific number 6,000 used here came from, I guess it is just a suggested example by the employer and not a set amount.) He takes the falsified receipt to the employer and they use the amount to calculate a new, lower taxable income. The only way I can see that this is a “reimbursement” is if the company is re-classifying what had previously been counted as ordinary income into rental reimbursement. In other words, his pay is changed from 12,000 to 6,000 plus a rental allowance of 6,000. His new tax is less than a tenth of what it would have been (falls from 1,065 to 95) and his tax rate fell from 15% to 8% on my calculations. By the way, I wonder what country this guy comes from where he considers 15% high”中国的税也这么高”

What is发票税? Is it a fee for providing the receipt? Is it a percent of the receipt’s value? Is it the landlord’s income tax? Even if the landlord does not have to pay “receipt tax” , doesn’t it inflate the reported value of the landlord’s rental income, so the landlord should owe more personal income tax? 房东不承担个人所得税？ Is rental income tax-free in China? Or maybe the tax collector does not access that data from the government officials who 开发票。