Latest:

23:02 MPs back election reform referendum
22:32 Vakacegu citing dismissed
22:12 Three-sy does it for Cottagers
22:02 Dindane claims dramatic equaliser
22:02 Tuncay snatches point for Potters
22:02 Tevez and Adebayor on target for City
21:22 Ex-Beatle Macca visits the Commons
20:02 Dublin mayoral election 'this year'

U2 reject tax avoidance claims

Thursday, 26 February 2009

U2 frontman Bono's tax avoidance 'depriving poor'

Bookmark & Share

U2 have hit back at critics who have accused the band of setting up intricate foreign tax avoidance schemes to avoid paying high taxes in Ireland.

On the eve of their new album launch, the band's manager, Paul McGuinness, last night rejected accusations of hypocrisy and said Bono, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton and the Edge were all "personal investors and employers" in Ireland.

Addressing the issue of their tax affairs for the first time, Mr McGuinness said much of U2 paid different taxes in different countries.

He was speaking after a group of Third-World campaigners accused the band of hypocrisy over their tax affairs, claiming "tax avoidance" schemes in general impacted on the world's most impoverished countries.

The Debt and Development Coalition (DDCI), whose members include Concern, Trocaire, Oxfam and a string of Catholic missionary orders, yesterday attacked the band's use of a tax base in the Netherlands.

The DDCI confronted Finance Minister Brian Lenihan outside his offices yesterday and told him U2 was depriving the State of revenue needed for social services and aid to foreign countries.

But Mr McGuinness last night insisted the band is "fully compliant" with Irish tax legislation. "U2 is a global business and it pays taxes globally," he said.

"At least 95pc of U2's business -- including record and ticket sales -- takes place outside of Ireland and as a result the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world.

"They continue to remain Ireland-based and are personal investors and employers in the country.

"Like any other business, U2 operates in a tax-efficient manner."

U2 moved their publishing arm to Holland in 2006 after the Government capped tax-free earnings for artists at €250,000. The band was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the royalties scheme.

Nessa Ni Chasaide, of the DDCI, told Mr Lenihan millions of euro were being lost through similar tax-avoidance schemes which she claimed kept cash, in the form of foreign aid, from the poorest people in society.

As a Bono impersonator sang U2 numbers in the background, Ms Ni Chasaide told Mr Lenihan that tax-avoidance schemes such as the one used by U2 had a detrimental effect on impoverished countries.

"There is nothing illegal about what they have done in taking advantage of more favourable tax laws but, given Bono has invested so much in promoting an end to poverty, we see a contradiction there."

She told Mr Lenihan: "Impoverished countries lose millions every year because of tax avoidance and it's essential that our aid programme is not undermined by a lack of action by rich countries, including Ireland."

Mr Lenihan said the Government had abolished the "Cinderella rule" where people could say they had not spent a day in Ireland if they left by midnight. "There is a problem with smaller countries that have set up deliberate tax havens and we are debating that at EU level."

Comments

First |
Previous
1
2
Next
| Last

24 Comments

U2 and particularly Bono are hypocrites. They campaign for an end to poverty, badger governments to give more aid to Africa, while at the same time move their assets around to ensure they pay as little tax as possible. It is government revenue through tax which enables countries to give foreign aid. The Republic's tax rate is 12.5% so it's not like they were being ripped off, but they moved their publishing division to the Netherlands to avail of their 5% rate

Posted by Peter Forde | 03.03.09, 22:27 GMT

It's not the tax avoidance issue that annoys me as much as Bono's sucking ing up to the Dublin capitalist sycophants. He celebrates prosperity for all of Ireland ...... all 8 or 10 years of it. Is Bono too blinded by his wealth to see the devastation of our culture and our own way of doing things? The system that the Dublin "geniuses" foisted upon us has left us in a lurch. We cannot return to our own ways because they have been ridiculed and cast aside for the modern way. Modernism got us hooked and adddicted to acquired needs and wants. We ended up with a lot of trash we could well have done without. We are left with a pile of debth, poisoned land and waterways, children who do not know their history and know only the way of the consumer. What a sick and spirituallly-deprived place modern Ireland is. We once were a proud and resilient nation, now we give away the cradle of our civilization (the six counties) for access to the consumer culture. What tragedy we have brought upon us!

Posted by Séamus Ó Braonáin | 01.03.09, 18:42 GMT

@ Alan & any other (insert here)

Bono/U2 don't have to campaign for the poor and needy to generate publicity, their music does that for them. To think otherwise is just plain stupid, I'd bet all the criticism is from people that have never actually seen the band live or bought a record. You get in to U2 for their music, not because they/Bono do great things for the poor.

What have you ever done for charity or the taxman to have such a high opinion?

Come back when you've done a fraction of what's been achieved by Bono. Making himself a target to the likes of pious people like yourself is the price he's prepared to pay.

Just get over it FFS, it's their money, they can do what ever they want with it. They've paid more taxes in 1 year than all the whingers in here combined throughout their lives and generate many jobs for people in Eire.

It's much easier to jump on someone else's back than walk for yourself. Until you've learned how to walk, try not to talk.

Posted by Gaz | 28.02.09, 11:15 GMT

@ Melissa
"Its a well known fact that U2 have donated millions to charities"

If it is such a well known fact, how much have they given and to which charities. All we know is that they tell everyone else to give money.

@ Andrew
"Sounds like they are real scrooges like most of the Irish are"

Can you back this statement up because people of Ireland and Northern Ireland have always seemed very generous to me.

Also as two of them were born in Britain with no Irish lineage it shows your comment to be ill found and ill conceived.

Posted by Alan | 28.02.09, 03:37 GMT

The super-rich should pay their taxes like the rest of us. Otherwise they ought to jet off to their paradise islands and stop telling the rest of us mere mortals how to live.

PS. I'm not jealous of U2. I'd be ashamed to look the people of Ireland/NI in the eye if I didn't pay tax.

As for the 250,000 euro limit: come on!!! 50,000 would be more than enough to support Ireland's starving artists. Cleaners and sales assistants have to manage on a mere fraction of that. Very unfair.

Posted by Sharon Owens | 27.02.09, 16:26 GMT

What is really at stake is what is what we really do with money. If you are earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year what are you going to do with it. Bill Gates makes it clear what he does with his money, so does Warren Buffet and good on them. But U2 just seem to use their supposed beliefs about poverty to attract more publicity, and the limelight and more parties where they are glorified. Why do they not commit large quantities of cold hard cash, indeed any money, to doing something about poverty like other fair dikum philanthropists like Buffet and Gates. Sounds like they are real scrooges like most of the Irish are!

Posted by Andrew | 27.02.09, 11:05 GMT

The Benny hats, the designer stubble, the waistcoats worn over black T-shirts... good for your image.

The luxury homes around the world... not so good for your image.

Posted by Sharon Owens | 27.02.09, 08:26 GMT

This is simply a case of certain people, especially in Ireland, simply being jealous of U2's success and wishing to find any reason to bash them. Get over it. It's U2's business what they do with their money. Its a well known fact that U2 have donated millions to charities. In reality, they don't even have to do that.

Posted by Melissa | 26.02.09, 22:57 GMT

As the saying goes "any publicity is good publicity". This comes out the day before the release of their new album. Lyrics include "get your boots on" and "all the world needs is a kiss"!!!!!!!!!!! Need I say more.

Posted by chrissie | 26.02.09, 21:54 GMT

in the dail 04 charlie mc creevy refused to reveal the number of irish citizens claiming to be non-residents for tax purposes after charlie departed we got figures and at this time its 5803 people /feb 09 ,,even socially conscious and tax compliant people have gone along with the feting of the tax fugitives ( they are not exiles ) as heroes and exemplars who have the right to lecture the rest of us on what the state they decline to support should and should not do ,saint bono comes into this group

Posted by hg | 26.02.09, 19:35 GMT

@terry

"Would this be the tax legislation which means artists do not pay tax on any royalties which they earn?"

No it would not be this legislation which no longer exists. It is the changing of these tax laws which prompted them to move most of their taxable assets to Amsterdam.

@ Gaz

Clearly you are a big U2 fan. The probably is not just the tax avoidance. The problem is that this Bono is jetting around the world telling every government that they need to give more financial aid to the third world. Governments rely on tax for income, yet the same bunch of muppets are doing everything they can to avoid paying tax thus reducing the money that governments have to give money

"Bono's time spent campaigning for the poor is worth a thousand times more than his personal fortune in money and effect."

This self-proclaimed saviour status has done wonders for his personal fortune. These guys do not do anything for free.

Posted by Alan | 26.02.09, 18:19 GMT

To be fair to them tax avoidance is perfectly legal, its tax evasion that is a crime, and there is a difference. We may not agree with what they are doing, but they aren't doing anything different to any other high profile artists of successful businessmen in this country I suspect.

Its because it is U2 it is getting this publicity. Besides this is a very old story, its well known that they moved their business affairs to Holland a few years ago to take advantage of the tax breaks. Not sure why this is rearing its head again now....

Posted by Paul | 26.02.09, 17:30 GMT

I must be missing something.
People are outraged that u2 are trying to stop shed loads of money going to the government in taxes. Is everyone on here a hypocrite.
So in other words everyone on here wold be standing at the top of the line to pay the Irish govt. taxes so they can pi$$ it away? Wow i didn't realise i was in such good company.

Posted by rufus | 26.02.09, 16:58 GMT

What U2 are doing is no more immoral than people from the north going south for petrol/diesel due to the lower fuel duty... (Which I see noting wrong, rational people do try to maximize utility!)

And what does reducing your tax payments, and thereby increasing your wealth, have to relate to helping the poor in third world countries?

What next, teachers should never watch TV, because TV is viewed as anti-educational, or athletes should never eat fast food because it is viewed as unhealthy?!?

Some people should really catch themselves on…

Posted by J McK | 26.02.09, 16:43 GMT

Between this mess and Bono's investment company spending $400 million on Palm, it is fair game to question U2's (more Bono's) commitment to their well known positions of requesting others to send money to their pet causes. Yet, it's only fair that U2 have the chance to explain themselves.

Posted by Harvey Finkelstein | 26.02.09, 15:32 GMT

publicity stunt!

Posted by RB | 26.02.09, 15:29 GMT

Gaz, so you think "what he and the rest of the band do with their hard earned cash is of no ones business but their own"? The problem with that is that Bono seems to have made of a second career of telling us what we should do with our hard earned money.

Posted by terry | 26.02.09, 14:25 GMT

By reducing the total amount of tax they pay to the Irish government, they are increasing the amount of net income in their own pockets. But does anyone (apart from their accountant) know how much the band members as individuals then donate to charities and other similar causes?

How do the critics know that the the total amount they donate is not greater than the taxation revenue 'lost' by the Irish government? And even if the Irish government 'lost' say €5,000,000 of tax revenue as a result of this, how much of that €5,000,000 would go on foreign aid? A mere fraction I would suspect - inn fact quite possibly less that U2 band members might donate personally.

So unless you know how exactly how much taxation revenue the Irish government has 'lost' out on through this, exactly how much of that would have otherwise gone on foreign aid, and exactly how much the band members donate to charity, then really all this criticism is just ill-informed cheap shots.

Posted by U2 fan | 26.02.09, 14:08 GMT

Tax strategies are widely available for those in the know earning generally £150,000 plus .

The self employed/employed working very hard and who earn say £25,000 per annum get mugged by our tax system
.
U2 cannot just fill in a tax return and watch the figures go into overdrive when it spots the income slice at the higher rate !

Posted by Wealthcare Ireland | 26.02.09, 13:41 GMT

This is so typical with many of these celebs and their promoters. Let's pretend to be good, caring and environmentally aware as it would be good publicity for sales. Unfortunately, too many people are naive and don't see through the scam.

Posted by robbo | 26.02.09, 13:25 GMT