at 18:15 on October 26, 2007, EDT.
By Shawn Pogatchnik, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DUBLIN, Ireland - U2 Ltd., the Irish band's music publishing company, raked in US$30 million-plus last year - and $25.8 million of it went to five unidentified "employees," according to documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

Those "employees" are suspected to be the band members and their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness. But U2's public relations firms in Dublin and London refused to confirm that.

While Bono has won accolades worldwide for raising awareness of Third World poverty, he has been criticized for moving U2's corporate offices out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes. The U2 Ltd. documents show the band moved its corporate base last year from Ireland to the Netherlands, where royalties on music incur virtually no tax.

The move, while perfectly legal, strikes a raw nerve in Ireland, whose wealthiest citizens often live as tax exiles in other European countries to avoid tax.

It's not known whether the globe-trotting Bono - who owns a mansion overlooking Dublin Bay - pays personal taxes in Ireland.

U2 Ltd.'s move to the Netherlands coincided with the appearance on its accounts, for the first time, of five "employees."

The documents, filed this week at the Irish Companies Registration Office in Dublin, record that the four band members - Paul (Bono) Hewson, Dave (The Edge) Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen - quit the U2 Ltd. board when the company relocated to Amsterdam in June 2006.

The documents offered no breakdown of pay to the five. Previous years' U2 Ltd. accounts, produced when the U2 members were still company directors, listed employee salaries as zero.

U2 Ltd. said it paid nearly $1.1 million in 2006 tax to Ireland, compared to just $46,500 in 2005.

The increased tax bill in 2006 reflects U2's sudden exposure to taxes on royalty income in Ireland. Last year the government - stung by criticism that its traditional tax-free status for artists was not intended to support multimillionaires like U2 - capped the tax-free benefit at $360,000 annually.

Within months, U2 relocated its corporate base to Amsterdam.

The U2 Ltd. documents, reflecting the band's continuous collection of royalty payments for album and music-download sales as well as rebroadcast rights, are unrelated to the band's profits from its most recent worldwide tour. Billboard reported that the Vertigo tour grossed more than $260 million.

Bono and the other U2 members regularly make lists of Ireland's wealthiest people. One often published figure estimates their wealth at $860 million, but the figure has proved impossible to document given the band's myriad investment projects and companies.


©The Canadian Press, 2007

for all he does and all he gives, i don't care if he pays taxes or not. the wonderful thing about having sovereignty over your money is that you get to do what you want with it and you don't have to hope your gov't will do right by it.

For a guy that speaks blather with so many companies and want countries to help world deficit so much, it sounds like hogwash or a tax-write off.

sassybritches said:

U2 for one doesn't have much respect for the Irish Gov
Bono and his wife have often spoke against Mary MacAleese, the president...
so evading irish tax doesn't really surprise me much

fstop said:

right. because giving millions of your own money and your popular image to get others involved (which is priceless) is nothing.

Cinnie said:

co-

Let's discuss something more important:

Is Bono shaging Andrea Corr?

MikeMatronik said:

He's happily married...
Thiers nothing that steal an irishman from his first love, A pint and his second love, playboy magazines, and his third, his wife

.
[Edited 10/28/07 10:37am]

MikeMatronik said:

that's an old photo, no? he's been rocking the buzzed hair look these days i thought.

sassybritches said:

Yeah that's an OLD picture.

sassybritches said:

Then he should stop encouraging governments to do something about Africa and go directly to the multi-millionaires in his band and social circle, if that's the case.


Love the guy, but the thing about them moving operations out of Ireland to avoid taxes is hypocritical. Where the hell does he think these governments are going to get the money to throw at the causes that he's always harping on?

Raze said:

he does that, lol. he helped start DATA with bill gates, for crying out loud. hey, i disagree with how my government spends its money and i refuse to pay federal taxes because of it. i see nothing wrong with keeping your money when you know you'll apply it more efficiently.

sassybritches said:

Yeah i see nothing wrong with it at all, you dont support a Governments policies so you take it elsewhere, its not like they are moving it around and never paying a dime of any tax like some wealthy stars we all know. Shoot if i was U2 i wouldnt support my government either.

F*ck poor people, I want a Bono sex tape!

MikeMatronik said:

Bono truly is a cunt. You don't lecture world leaders on how tax should be spent when you evade the very tax that you harp on about. The poor hair transplanted one must have weeped the day that Ireland stopped their special artists' tax scheme...or at least began imposing tax on those earning more than €150,000. Still, shifting everything to Holland sorts that out. And yes, he is shagging Andrea Corr and has been for years.

I don't give a flying fuck what Bono wants to do with his money but the eejit should stop lecturing others.