"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.
I read some of the comments posted on the Baltimore Sun and I have to say that some of the responses made me sad to be an American. People are seriously writing off all the generous work the band does for various countries and are lumping them with all the other money-grabbers. Definitely a textbook case of "haters gonna hate."
What people miss or seem to forget is that U2 still pay huge amounts of tax to the Irish govt as individuals, on their homes in the country and on businesses, they own outside of the band, which makes up for practically half of Dublin. They move their record making business to Holland and suddenlly they are tax evaders stabbing Ireland in the back. This is what I like to call nit-picking.
I don't think a band member should be involved in this discussion.
I think it's fair comment for one of the band to come out and speak on the issue, bearing in mind it is they who are being charged with the accusations. I hope it actually IS Edge and not an impersonation lol
I don't understand why public officials make such an issue out of this. If a country's tax rate is the cost of doing business within their respective borders, why aren't they making their home turf as appealing as possible? Tax avoidance is a symptom, not a cause, of an inefficient business environment. If performing in America becomes economically disadvantageous, U2 simply won't tour in my homeland - I won't be able to see them live, but they'll still collect ticket revenue somewhere else.
I hope U2 continues to pay as little tax as possible so Edge has more money to buy guitars, record albums and stage impressive live shows.
Originally posted by Risto:I can understand why he felt the need to respond, but it wont help. Just let it fade away....
I think it's simply a Catch-22 situation - if no one says anything, they'll get pestered for not speaking out. If they do, they'll get criticised for it.
