FUU2!!!
U2 tax compliance: the view from Ireland
July 15, 2011
U2 appear unable to grasp the core of the issue regarding their tax status in Ireland ("The Edge: U2, Bono have not evaded taxes," July 13) . Nobody on this island doubts that they are fully in compliance with Irish or European law, or that they have every right to move their tax base to the Netherlands. Indeed, the Irish Exchequer can hardly complain, considering the criticism Ireland has received from many quarters in Europe because of its own low corporate tax rate. Rather, the quibble lies with the double standards applied by Bono and Co. when lecturing us on the rights and wrongs of wealth distribution.
U2 are hardly in a position to scold the people of Europe (and particularly of Ireland) about our perceived unwillingness to contribute more to Africa, or to pressure our governments to do so. Ireland is confined to an economic hospice, overburdened by crippling bank debt, 15 percent unemployment, and the straitjacket of European monetary union. The Irish people feel rightly aggrieved that U2 have chosen to siphon their earnings through the Dutch tax system, thereby availing themselves of lower rates, and denying their own country significant amounts of revenue that would genuinely make a positive difference to the Irish economy and society at a critical time.
They are altogether more outraged by Bono's continued insistence that more needs to be done for the poor, when he and his friends have effectively refused to do so for the poor of Ireland, or at least to speak out on their behalf. At a time when the Irish government is shutting hospitals and schools and facing unbearable pressure from European banking interests, and record numbers of people rely on charity to feed their families, can the tax-avoiding juggernaut of U2 truly feel they are morally justified in their unethical and hypocritical behavior?
As for The Edge, it is amusing to hear him proclaim that Ireland is not bankrupt. I understand that it may be difficult to retain an impartial outlook from one's mansion in Malibu, but perhaps if he were to walk the streets of Dublin or Limerick with the ordinary plebs, he may learn to keep quiet on such matters. Might I suggest he start by visiting the record numbers of soup kitchens in his native city?
Edward Collins, Galway, Ireland
Mon 08 Aug 2006
U2 under fire over move to avoid paying tax
Reports that U2 have moved a big part of their multi-million euro business empire out of Ireland to avoid tax was greeted with disappointment by politicians who said it appeared to fly in the face of Bono's calls for more Government spending on the developing world.
"It seems that Bono wants ordinary Irish taxpayers to give more to the third world while he opts out of paying the small proportion of his income that would have been involved in the changed tax rules for artists," one Government source told The Irish Times.
Bit of article from 2006!
Bono, the rock star and campaigner against Third World debt, is asking the Irish government to contribute more to Africa. At the same time, he's reducing tax payments that could help fund that aid.
Bono was asked: And relocating your business offshore in order to avoid paying taxes to the Republic of Ireland, where poverty is higher than in almost any other developed nation? Bono's hypocrisy seems even more naked when you consider that Ireland is a tax haven for artists. In June 2005, Bono (who was born in Dublin) told the Belfast Telegraph:
Bono's answer was: Our publishing, which is about one third of our income, we have tax breaks on, and that's great and that's encouraged us to stay in Ireland and if that changes, it's not going to affect anything for U2. ...
Six months later, Ireland's finance minister announced a ceiling of $319,000 on tax-free incomes, and six months after that, U2 opened its Amsterdam office. The relocation of U2's music publishing will halve taxes on the band's songwriting royalties, which already reportedly total $286 million. Although Bono has declined to comment on the move, the band's lead guitarist, David "the Edge" Evans, said, "Of course we're trying to be tax-efficient. Who doesn't want to be tax-efficient?'" Writing in the Observer, Nick Cohen noted that Evans "sounded as edgy as a plump accountant in the 19th hole."
U2's tax-shelter scheme caused an uproar in Ireland when the story broke there in August. But it's scarcely raised a ripple in the United States. A conservative would argue that's because in this country, we don't begrudge a man the opportunity to keep what he earns off the sweat of his brow (or even off the sweat of someone else's brow) even if that man spends half his time trying to goad governments into spending more to alleviate poverty. But a liberal could answer that in the United States, we are so used to seeing rich people avoid taxation that even a wealthy hypocrite who shelters his cash abroad can no longer qualify as news.
All-in-all I have no problem with someone taking advantage of a tax break, just don't preach to people to give more!!!!!!!
Before that 319K ceiling law went into effect in ireland, U2 paid 0, nada, ...... it appears talk is cheap ........ but Bono is cheaper!
Not that Ireland right now has gold dropping out the sky for it's people! Classic meat and potatoes meal is now potato and potatoes!
