Are U2 avoiding taxes? At Glastonbury, protesters were present, and a group called Art Uncut inflated a giant yellow balloon with the message ‘U Pay Your Tax 2’ during U2’s performance.
In the US, federal worker Simon Moroney wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun to criticize the band’s tax evasion.
It was time for the Edge to step in and get involved in the debate over the band’s exploitation of tax loopholes: he sent his own letter to the Baltimore Sun, declaring:
‘The recent letter to the editor entitled, ‘Senator Cardin's affection for Bono's foundation is indefensible,’ (July 7) by Simon Moroney contains so many inaccuracies that it is pointless to attempt to correct them all.
But the most serious inaccuracy is the totally false and possibly libelous accusation that U2 and Bono have, by moving a part of their business activities to Holland, been involved in tax evasion.
For the record U2 and the individual band members have a totally clean record with every jurisdiction to which they are required to pay tax and have never been and will never be involved in tax evasion.
Contrary to what Mr. Moroney writes, Ireland is, thankfully, not bankrupt.
Had he bothered to contact the Irish Ministry of Finance, as did Spin magazine journalist Steve Kandrell for his March 25th 2009 feature on U2, he would have discovered that they have no problem with U2 basing some of their business activities in Holland.
‘People complained at the time,’ says Owen Durgan of the Ministry of Finance. ‘But we have companies moving here from the rest of the EU, so it all evens out. We wouldn't make an issue of it.’
Furthermore, since he is a federal worker, it might interest Mr. Moroney to know that U2 and its members have paid many, many millions of dollars in taxes to the United States Internal Revenue Service over the years.
I hope that his fears of an Obama tax increase affecting him personally turn out to be as unfounded as his statements about U2's tax affairs and Bono's ONE campaign.
The Edge’
It’s really time to seriously investigate this ! Who is telling the truth? And it is more urgent than ever now that the band is selling the Claw, the 360º stage they have used for 110 concerts in 78 cities!