Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Big Paychecks for U2 Millionaires (Bono Preaches High Taxes for World's Poor; Evades His Own Taxes)
MSN Music ^ | Oct. 26, 2007 | The Associated Press

Posted on 10/28/2007 3:13:39 PM PDT by DogByte6RER

Big Paychecks for U2 Millionaires

Oct. 26, 2007

The Associated Press

U2 Ltd., the Irish band's music publishing company, raked in $30 million-plus last year — and $25.8 million of it went to five unidentified "employees," according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Those "employees" are suspected to be the band members and their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness. But U2's public relations firms in Dublin and London refused to confirm that.

While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes. The U2 Ltd. documents show the band moved its corporate base last year from Ireland to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax.

The move, while perfectly legal, strikes a raw nerve in Ireland, whose wealthiest citizens often live as tax exiles in other European countries to avoid tax.

It's not known whether the globe-trotting Bono — who owns a mansion overlooking Dublin Bay — pays personal taxes in Ireland.

U2 Ltd.'s move to the Netherlands coincided with the appearance on its accounts, for the first time, of five "employees."

The documents, filed this week at the Irish Companies Registration Office in Dublin, record that the four band members — Paul "Bono" Hewson, Dave "The Edge" Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen — quit the U2 Ltd. board when the company relocated to Amsterdam in June 2006.

The documents offered no breakdown of pay to the five. Previous years' U2 Ltd. accounts, produced when the U2 members were still company directors, listed employee salaries as zero.

U2 Ltd. said it paid nearly $1.1 million in 2006 tax to Ireland, compared to just $46,500 in 2005.

(Excerpt) Read more at music.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: bono; hypocrisy; hypocrites; ireland; liberals; millionaires; otherpeoplesmoney; payola; shutupandsing; taxes; taxevasion; u2; worldpoverty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last
I have no problem with Bono and crew making hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

I resent their hyprocrisy when they preach to U.S. politicians to send more American tax dollars to help the U.N. and other goofy world projects yet U2 does all it can to evade paying taxes in Ireland...

1 posted on 10/28/2007 3:13:42 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes.

I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell ya.

2 posted on 10/28/2007 3:17:03 PM PDT by rockabyebaby (HEY JORGE, SHUT UP AND BUILD THE BLEEPING FENCE, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

John Edward can join this group. He paid himself as a lawyer with dividends (or some such thing) to avoid being taxed on his income as ordinary income.

Will Bill and Hillary release their tax returns? Expect similar games with them.


3 posted on 10/28/2007 3:17:31 PM PDT by tips up
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

“I don’t believe in riches but you should see how I live.”


4 posted on 10/28/2007 3:18:10 PM PDT by Unknowing (Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
From earlier:

U2's Bono avoids taxes (August, 2006)

What would Bono do? Probably dodge taxes (September, 2006)

Bono, Who Preaches Charity, Profits From Buyouts, Tax Breaks (January, 2007)

5 posted on 10/28/2007 3:20:34 PM PDT by BlessedBeGod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby
Just "More Crap" from Bono... Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
6 posted on 10/28/2007 3:26:50 PM PDT by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

bono

bonehead

bonono

bono the clown

boner

bedtime for bono

oh no, it's bono

pro bono? no, anti bono


7 posted on 10/28/2007 3:32:39 PM PDT by Vision Thing (The liberal Holy Trinity: big government, hollywood, and the globe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes.

Looks like bonehead bono has finally found what he's looking for.

8 posted on 10/28/2007 3:33:38 PM PDT by Vision Thing (The liberal Holy Trinity: big government, hollywood, and the globe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER; EveningStar

No wonder no matter what “good” Bono does, he still seems like a huge piece of crap. :)


9 posted on 10/28/2007 3:35:26 PM PDT by Thoro (Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: tips up

Taxes are for “the little people” — not the annointed ones who are here to tell us how we should live.


11 posted on 10/28/2007 3:46:13 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Elections have consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Attention tax paying pigeons -

http://www.taxjustice-usa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=204


12 posted on 10/28/2007 3:49:06 PM PDT by Westlander (Unleash the Neutron Bomb)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
Liberals are like that.

They love to spend other people's money on "charity" - so long as it isn't their money.

They are NIMBY's (not in my neighborhood) to the nth degree. Just try going to a limousine liberal suburb and propose a subsidized housing project, a jail or a homeless shelter.

13 posted on 10/28/2007 3:53:57 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 30 days away from outliving Freddie Mercury)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tips up

Bill and Hillary will have to tell how they got their drug money. LOL


14 posted on 10/28/2007 4:10:35 PM PDT by freekitty ((May the eagles long fly our beautiful and free American sky.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
“Taxes are for “the little people” — not the anointed ones who are here to tell us how we should live.”

I’ll give you another example of the total hypocrisy. John BonJovi lives up on hill in a huge riverfront mansion in NJ in a neighborhood where all the houses along the river are mansions. He has a farmers tax exemption on the property which cuts a good portion of his property taxes. What does he “farm”? A few bee hives in the remote section of the property.

15 posted on 10/28/2007 4:35:29 PM PDT by AlphaOneAlpha
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby
Their defense was hilarious--
 

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."
 

http://www.slate.com/id/2152580/

16 posted on 10/28/2007 5:00:12 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
Image hosted by Photobucket.com do I really have to say it???

17 posted on 10/28/2007 5:09:29 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
>>
The move, while perfectly legal, strikes a raw nerve in Ireland, whose wealthiest citizens often live as tax exiles in other European countries to avoid tax.
<<

There is nothing immoral about arranging your affairs so as to legally minimize the taxes you pay. It is just nothing but hypocritical of high earning entertainers to trot around the world telling the rest of us how much more in taxes we should be paying.

It should be pointed out that the US and very few other countries tax income of their citizens worldwide. In other words, if a US citizen were to earn money by playing the guitar on a Panamanian cruise ship flying the Liberian flag, owned by a Chinese company in international waters to a crowd of Japanese fans who throw yen at him, he is obligated to report and pay taxes to the US government on that specific income. I fully realize that (for the time being), Congress in its kindness and wisdom, grants some exemptions and deductions to non-US income, but the fact remains it must be fully reported in order to qualify for those reductions.

Other countries only tax income earned by their citizens when they are in the country. Otherwise, they only have to pay any taxes that might be due where they earn their money.

Putting aside Bono’s hypocrisy, the universal taxation suffered by US citizens (living in the “land of the free”) is another reason I support the Fair Tax. Under that tax plan, were Bono spent his money, he would pay the tax. There would be no exemptions or tax shelters.

18 posted on 10/28/2007 5:17:14 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Absolutely, one of the best SP’s ever. I shall sarcastically use Courics as a unit of measure for the rest of my days.


19 posted on 10/28/2007 5:23:34 PM PDT by PennsylvaniaMom (I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them. Jane Austen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Thoro

Its easy to be a philandrophist with other people’s money.


20 posted on 10/28/2007 8:39:59 PM PDT by art_rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson