两者均用于指设法少交或不交赋税，但从法律角度上看两者差异很大。tax avoidance为“避税”，即“规避纳税”，指纳税人利用一切合法手段，如钻税法漏洞的空子，尽量减少应税款额，以达到少缴或不缴税的目的，总的说来，其属于法律允许范畴的活动(trying legally to minimize the amount of tax to be paid [1])。而tax evasion则为“偷税”或“漏税”，多指以隐瞒不报或少报收人等方式以达到少缴税的目的，其也称为“纳税欺诈” (tax fraud[2])，为非法行为，为民法和刑律均不容（The willful attempt to defeat or circumvent the tax law in order to illegally reduce one's tax liability. The tax evasion is punishable by both civil and criminal penalties [3] )。一句话，两者的差异在于 tax avoidance 是合法行为，而tax evasion是非法行为：“The difference between these phrases is the difference between is legal ( avoidance) and what is not (evasion) [4] ”。至于 tax dodge (逃税)，其也属于非法行为，等同tax evasion，但它一般不属于很正式的法律术语。

【注】

[1] Cf. P. H. Collin, Dictionary of Law, at p. 542, Peter Collin Publishing (1993).

[2]“tax fraud：n. the crime of intentionally filling a false return or making other false statements under penalties of perjury to taxing authorities. ”Cf. James E. Clapp, Random House Webster's Dictionary of the Law, at p. 425, Random House, New York (2000)

[3] Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th edition, at p. 1474，West Group (1999).

[4] Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, A Dictionary of Modern, Legal Usage，2nd edition, at p. 868，Oxford University Press Ltd. (1995).

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