U2 are "robbing the world's poor", according to a coalition of Irish aid groups. At a demonstration this week, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) condemned U2's "tax evasion" and its alleged tax shelter in the Netherlands. DDCI is a coalition of 70 organisations including Oxfam and Concern Worldwide.
"We wanted to raise our concern that while Bono has championed the cause of fighting poverty and injustice in the impoverished world, the fact is that his band has moved part of its business to a tax shelter," DDCI's Nessa Ni Chasaide told ITN. "Tax avoidance and tax evasion costs the impoverished world at least $160m (£142.5m) every year. This is money urgently required to bring people out of poverty."
The DDCI drew attention to U2 Ltd, a company set up by the band to deal with royalty payments. When Ireland changed its tax laws in 2006, capping the artist income tax exemption at €250,000 (£223,000), U2 moved the company to a finance house in the Netherlands.
In 2007, U2 Ltd paid out more than £19m in wages, according to ITN.
"U2 is just one part of the problem," Chasaide emphasised. "This is a much wider and systemic problem in our global financial system. Every company and individual has the responsibility to pay the right amount of tax."
U2 manager Paul McGuinness rejected the protestors' accusations, insisting that "U2 is a global business and it pays taxes globally". "At least 95% of U2's business ... takes place outside of Ireland and as a result the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world," he told the Belfast Telegraph.
The band are "personal investors and employers" in Ireland, McGuinness said, but "like any other business, U2 operates in a tax-efficient manner".
"There is nothing illegal about what they have done in taking advantage of more favourable tax laws," DDCI's Chasaide admitted, "but given Bono has invested so much in promoting an end to poverty, we see a contradiction there."
