One of the most notable events to occur at this year’s Glastonbury Festival was the protest against U2 for their alleged tax evasion, which festival security moved quickly to quash. Nevertheless, it brought to light the ongoing issue of the band’s withholding tax from their native Ireland, an economy that has been hit hard in recent times.
Now, guitarist The Edge seems to have become sick of the vitriol aimed at the veteran band and written a strongly-worded letter to the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
Spinner reports that The Edge, real name David Evans, was moved to write after a letter appeared in the paper on July 7 from one Simon Moroney, a reader and federal worker who chastised Maryland Senator Benjamin Cardin for throwing his weight behind Bono’s ONE anti-poverty movement. The letter took particular aim at the singer, saying, “Paul Hewson, aka Bono, exemplifies the worst characteristics of Wall Street, both for excess and tax evasion.”
In his reply to the letter, The Edge wrote, “It contains so many inaccuracies that it is pointless to correct them all.
“But the most serious inaccuracy is the totally false and possibly libelous accusation that U2 and Bono have, by moving a part of their business activities to Holland, been involved in tax evasion.
“For the record, U2 and the individual band members have a totally clean record with every jurisdiction to which they are required to pay tax and have never been, and will never be, involved in tax evasion.”
He added that “U2 and its members have paid many, many millions of dollars in taxes to the United States Internal Revenue Service over the years.”
The U2 tax saga is likely to rumble on.
