Well, you said that you didn't have a problem with U2's accountants minimising their taxes, so I would hope that you would have a problem in the no-doubt hypothetical situation of them ever crossing the line into evasion.
Asking the superrich to pay their fair share is feeling 'entitled' to their money, come off it.
No, but you know what I mean. U2's income is largely royalties, it is their bread and butter, just like salary/wages is for you and me. So if everyone avoided or evaded tax on their income, where would we be? Not so much in the way of funds for development aid, that's where.
Tax-avoiding rockstars are nothing new, back in the 1970's they were all at it. At that time the tax rates were huge so I can understand it. Irish tax rates in recent years aren't even particularly high, however, that's one of the reasons why I suspect that it very much grates with the majority of Irish people, particularly in a time of recession, that these guys aren't paying their share.
If I find out a rockstar is avoiding taxes, well I tend to usually think, par for the course. But if the same rockstar is telling me my taxes must increase in order to pay more in development aid, I think I'm going to have to deduce, unfortunately, that we are dealing with a rather hypocritical rock star, that we're dealing with someone who talks out of both sides of his mouth.
"U2" (let's not pretend this isn't really about Bono) is really ripping of the poor.
