Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Now that's Rich

  • 21-09-2006 7:49am
    #1
    walshb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 57,372 ✭✭✭✭


    And this guy is forever lecturing us and others on how much we should be giving of our tax to the third world.....

    U2's tax move is defended by band's manager

    ADVERTISEMENT







    U2 MANAGER Paul McGuinness has defended the band's controversial decision to move part of its financial empire to Holland, saying they are entitled to minimise the tax they pay.

    Earlier this summer, the group began moving some of their business affairs to a Dutch finance house in order to avail of a virtually tax-free status on their handsome royalties.

    They are believed to have saved around €15m by transferring the music publishing side of their business empire to Amsterdam - a relatively paltry sum given their estimated joint wealth of €690m.

    However, in an interview with Hot Press, Mr McGuinness, who manages the group's finances through his company Principle Management, defended the band. "Here's what I would say, and this is really all I have to say about it. The reality is that U2's business is 90pc conducted around the world. 90pc of our tickets and 98pc of our records are sold outside of Ireland.

    "It [Ireland] is where we live and where we work and where we employ a lot of people. But we pay taxes all over the world. And like any other business, we're perfectly entitled to minimise the tax we pay," he said.

    The decision to transfer some of their business dealings came ahead of the introduction of a cap on the artists' exemption scheme next year.

    Given his high-profile role as a humanitarian activist and campaigner for Third World causes, Bono came in for strong criticism following the revelation that he and the rest of the band were attempting to lower the amount of tax they pay.

    Mr McGuinness also denounced a recent decision by Universal Records to give away free music downloads as "awful". The manager said such a move put "the money in the hands of the phone companies and the ISPs".

    He said the band were currently ensconced in Abbey Road, where they are working on their new album and a charity collaboration with punk rockers Green Day.

    Mr McGuinness rubs shoulders with several political heavyweights such as the new PD leader Michael McDowell and British PM Tony Blair.

    Breda Heffernan


Comments

  • #2
    0utshined
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,746 ✭✭✭0utshined


    walshb wrote:
    And this guy is forever lecturing us and others on how much we should be giving of our tax to the third world.....

    Not a fan of the band so I don't keep up on what they say but I'd imagine what they say is that Governments should put more of their revenue towards the third world. Unless I've missed something we pay our tax but have no direct input into how it's spent.
    walshb wrote:
    saying they are entitled to minimise the tax they pay.

    Yeah they certainly are. There are rules, laws and schemes in place so that people can minimise the amount of tax they pay. I see nothing wrong with that. The band are just playing the game, people shouldn't be affronted by it. The same rules apply to everyone.
    walshb wrote:
    Given his high-profile role as a humanitarian activist and campaigner for Third World causes, Bono came in for strong criticism following the revelation that he and the rest of the band were attempting to lower the amount of tax they pay.

    There is no correlation that I can see between campaigning for third world causes and wanting to minimise your own tax. They are two distinct issues. I don't see the point of this part of the article and without saying who exactly was criticising him it strikes me as filler material from the journalist.

    Fake edit : The title of that article is a "Well no shít" of the highest order. He defends it? Well he's hardly going to criticise it now is he, seeing as he's the one doing it on the bands behalf!


  • #3
    monument
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 14,093 Mod ✭✭✭✭monument


    0utshined wrote:
    Yeah they certainly are. There are rules, laws and schemes in place so that people can minimise the amount of tax they pay. I see nothing wrong with that. The band are just playing the game, people shouldn't be affronted by it. The same rules apply to everyone.

    In fact, no they don’t. When some of the rich just “invest” in one (legal) scheme or another they can “minimise” or wipe out their tax bill. You need to have enough spare change to do this. Therefore, I’m afraid the “same rules” mantra doesn’t work.

    Others in the richer classes can claim residency in other countries. It just happens that some of these people use private aircraft that aren’t very well monitored, making it close to impossible to know how may days these people have actually spent in the country.

    There’s also the simple things like richer people can afford better accountants, and lawyers where needed. Also banks have, at least in the past, shown a great interest in hiding large sums of money, or at least relatively large sums.

    When the rich are allowed to “minimise” their tax bill in these ways it means they aren’t event paying the same percentage of tax.

    “Playing the game” (sic) might be all well and good, but it would be advisable to keep your head down if you’re going to do so.
    0utshined wrote:
    There is no correlation that I can see between campaigning for third world causes and wanting to minimise your own tax.

    There is when you are or other people connected to you move part of your business abroad to legally avoid paying tax on that part of your business, while at the same time you are telling a country how to spent its tax.

    But they already donate X amount of time and money simply won’t wash.

    0utshined wrote:
    They are two distinct issues. I don't see the point of this part of the article and without saying who exactly was criticising him it strikes me as filler material from the journalist.

    The main story is U2’s tax move, there’s plenty of similar stories about people and companies doing the same thing – whether it’s Irish companies and people using another country or US firms using Ireland.

    The story is larger because of the conflicts of what Bono says and what companies linked to him do. You don’t think there’s a conflict, that your right, but a hell of a lot of people disagree with you. A renewed interest has happened because of the Hotpress interview, and may happen again if/when Bono starts telling the government how to spend our taxes.

    As this update story is about what the manager has said in an interview, it’s complete nonsense to proclaim the story is “filler material” “without saying who exactly was criticising him”. On another point you obviously haven’t read the many letters to newspapers or threads on this site about the subject.
    0utshined wrote:
    Fake edit : The title of that article is a "Well no shít" of the highest order. He defends it? Well he's hardly going to criticise it now is he, seeing as he's the one doing it on the bands behalf!

    Fake headline no. 2: ‘Bono defends tax move’…

    No, wait; has that actually happened???


Advertisement