A must read article: An Open Letter To U2: What Happened To Your Relevance?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
its definitely a complicted issue, but do note that under the SPT, U2 would not qualify for the commuting exepmtion anyway - assuming they were using Canada for that purpose - because they do not commute regularly from Canada (or MX) to the US (they would have to be residents of those countries).

also, Edge is a PR of the US so he would not qualify anyway.
It's regular commuting during a work period, not regular commuting.

I might be wrong on the specific statute here, but this is definitely a thing, and they've been doing it since at least Vertigo, if not earlier.
 
Yes, it's the residency thing. As long as they got out before midnight, they could reduce their liability. I never looked into the details, but certainly after shows close enough to the international border you can find stories of the band racing off the moment the show finished, being hurried out of the venue to get to the airport in time. It was a big thing on Vertigo.
 
So, say for example they have 2 shows in Boston. Do they stay the night in Boston between the 2 shows, or do they fly to Canada and spend the night there and fly back to Boston for the next night's show?

That does seem exhausting. It'd have to be a pretty significant tax advantage, when you could just stay in a nice luxury suite in Boston for a few days and just take a car to and from the gig.
 
So, say for example they have 2 shows in Boston. Do they stay the night in Boston between the 2 shows, or do they fly to Canada and spend the night there and fly back to Boston for the next night's show?

That does seem exhausting. It'd have to be a pretty significant tax advantage, when you could just stay in a nice luxury suite in Boston for a few days and just take a car to and from the gig.
From what I gather, they'll spend the night in the same city if they're playing back to back nights, but will fly in day of the first show and fly back out immediately following the second show.

And it's also all a percentage game... there's a certain number of days they can be in country before they get taxed as residents - so I'm not sure the practice is as common on these alatfew tours with much fewer dates vs Vertigo and 360, where they were here for months at a time.


I don't remember all of why they do it other than that it's for tax reasons - I was told by security outside the arena during a Vertigo show that they were flying in from Canada, and I had the opportunity to ask someone in tour management the same day, who told me the exact reasons, but that was like 13 years ago and those brain cells died in 2013.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom