Talk about controversial!
Here is some news just in from ITN that’s stirred up alot of angst in Ireland and further afield.
The growing concerns, as indicated in this article forces a social onus on businesses and charities in particular to avoid tax havens by committing to paying taxes in the country your company is registered in. Apparently, by not doing this, poorer communities are losing millions annually that could be used for reinvestments and put to work towards enabling healthier ecomnomies around the world:
Rock band U2 has been accused of robbing the world’s poorest people by storing some of its wealth in a tax haven. On the eve of the launch of the group’s new album, No Line On The Horizon, protesters held a demonstration outside the Irish Department of Finance in Dublin.
U2 – frontman Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr – are depriving the Irish exchequer of much-needed revenue which could be spent on overseas aid, campaign group the Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) claims.
The band moved the company U2 Ltd, set up to deal with royalty payments, to a finance house in Holland in 2006 after the Irish Government scrapped an artist income tax exemption scheme. The new limit was capped at 250,000 euros (£223,000).
Accounts for 2007 show U2 Ltd paid out more than 21 million euros (£19m) in wages.
Oxfam and Concern Worldwide are among 70 organisations involved in the coalition, which met Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan before protesters gathered.
DDCI’s Nessa Ni Chasaide said: “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 in the Netherlands.”
She added: “Tax avoidance and tax evasion costs the impoverished world at least $160 million (£142.5m) every year. This is money urgently required to bring people out of poverty.
“U2 is just one part of the problem. 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.”
Mr Lenihan said: “We have tax treaties with other countries that regulate where you pay tax. There is a problem with smaller countries that have to set up deliberate tax havens. We are raising that at EU level.”
Andy Storey from justice group Afri said tax is a fundamental question of global justice.
He said: “Lost taxes in impoverished countries far outweigh what they receive from rich countries in aid. There are trillions of dollars stashed in tax havens. If that money was taxed in the countries where it was earned, governments would have their own resources to improve the lives of their people.”
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TIA!
