Urban Onramps

can’t win: U2 & taxes

If you google “U2 taxes” you can catch up with a row that started last month. U2 moved a small piece of their business to Holland in order to avoid a new Irish tax. Some are criticizing the move in light of U2’s call for governments worldwide to contribute more tax dollars to fighting poverty. I’m interested in this topic not because it bashes U2, but because it’s ripe for surfacing important observations. For example, U2’s defenders say that the band has been very generous over the years with their own personal money as well as via “just” business practices (no links, stuff I’ve received via email), so this move away from contributing to Ireland’s pot for fighting global poverty should be seen within a larger context, that while U2’s contribution to this particular pot may be less than hoped for, in the larger sense they’ve done great things for the cause. A lot of U2 fans, Rudy included, are willing to accept that explanation. Now, remove “U2″ and insert “America” and you can see where I’m going. America may not contribute to a particular pot by a high enough percentage, but if you consider on the whole America’s contribution to fighting global poverty (recall the large amounts that private Americans contributed to Tsunami relief), then America should get the same benefit of the doubt that U2 gets.

posted Oct 22, 2006, 8:05am by Rodolpho Carrasco