U2 To Face Tax Protest

Art Uncut will be staging a “highly visible” protest from the audience that will include an illuminated sign saying “Bono Pay Up.”

The protesters also intend to float an oversized bundle of fake cash across the crowd from an Irish Tricolour flag on one side to the Dutch flag on the other.

The protest is a reference to the band’s controversial 2006 decision to move part of its business to the Netherlands to lessen its tax burden following the Irish Government’s decision to put a cap on the amount of tax-free earnings available to artists.

Previously, worldwide royalties earned from works of art – including CDs – could be declared tax free as part of a popular initiative to help struggling artists and reflect Ireland’s reputation as a cultural hub.

However, the biggest beneficiaries were the likes of U2 rather than artists on the breadline.

Art Uncut, which bills itself as “Artists and Musicians Against The Cuts,” is an Internet-based UK organisation opposed to the current round of public expenditure cuts and campaigns against those it claims are “tax dodging – whether legal or not.”

“Bono claims to care about the developing world, but U2 greedily indulges in the very kind of tax avoidance which is crippling the poor nations of this world,” an Art Uncut spokesman told The Guardian.

Campaigners also want to draw attention to the impact of tax avoidance on Ireland’s parlous public finances.

U2 manager Paul McGuinness has always maintained that U2 is “a global business” and pays taxes globally. At least 95 percent of U2’s business takes place outside of Ireland. As a result, the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world.

In an interview with the Irish Times two years ago, Bono spoke about how he was “stung” and “hurt” by criticism of the band’s tax arrangements by some politicians and development groups.

“The thing that stung was the accusation of hypocrisy for my work as an activist,” he said.