Nick Cohen
Sunday October 22, 2006
The Observer

All last week, Bono was in court in Dublin arguing about a stetson. It was his trademark hat, as essential a part of the brand that is Bono as his compassion for starving Africans. His former stylist, Lola Cashman, says he gave the hat to her as thanks for her hard work. He looked like Nana Mouskouri before she remodelled him and it is outrageous, she says, for Bono to claim now that she stole it so she could sell it and make money which was rightfully his.
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The learned judges of Ireland have a duty to apply their fine minds to the case with due seriousness. What is surprising is that the rest of the world continues to take Bono seriously. I would have thought that after the revelation that U2 moved their music publishing company to the Netherlands to cut their tax bill in half, he wouldn’t have dared stepped out of his mansion for fear of being laughed to scorn.
Here was a man who incited audiences to condemn Western politicians for not sending enough of their taxpayers’ money to the wretched of the earth, avoiding tax himself. The Edge, U2’s guitarist, sounded as edgy as a plump accountant in the 19th hole when he explained the move offshore by saying: ‘Our business is a very complex business. Of course we’re trying to be tax-efficient. Who doesn’t want to be tax-efficient?’

The practical consequences of being ‘tax-efficient’ are many. If you say you care about Africa, why are you paying fees to international money movers who encourage Africa’s ‘tax-efficient’ kleptomaniacs to hide their loot in tax havens? You are also forcing fellow citizens, who didn’t make U2’s estimated $110m in 2005, to pick up the bill, not only for foreign aid, but for education, health, law and order and defence.

Duration : 0:6:38

Technorati Tags: global, parodie, pop, stars, warming

Important places to look for further research:

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=c6a32614-f906-4597-993d-f181196a6d71&k=0

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11659

http://infowars.net/articles/august2007/300807Warming.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml

Duration : 0:6:34

Technorati Tags: alex, Carbon, change, climate, co2, durkin, globalist, Jones, martin, nwo, Scam, tax

Dr. Annette Nellen is a professor in the department of accounting and finance at San José State University, where she teaches graduate-level tax courses. She speaks and writes frequently on tax policy matters, tax reform, tax accounting, and high-technology tax issues.

Duration : 0:1:52

Technorati Tags: Annette Nellen, COB, College of Business, San Jose, SJSU, Tax policy, Tax research

Duration : 0:2:46

Technorati Tags: golf, jnelson3d, ron paul, Scam, tax

Professor Foxs lecture focused on Making taxation more equitable. His talk illustrated the need for major systemic tax reforms as a matter of social justice. With the elections of President Obama and Prime Minister Rudd, Fox emphasized that governments have a fresh opportunity to now undertake a major reform of tax policies in order create a more just tax system.

Duration : 0:2:3

Technorati Tags: Equity, John Fox, tax, taxation

Dr. Annette Nellen is a professor in the department of accounting and finance at San José State University, where she teaches graduate-level tax courses. She speaks and writes frequently on tax policy matters, tax reform, tax accounting, and high-technology tax issues.

Duration : 0:2:45

Technorati Tags: Annette Nellen, Campus Reading, COB, College of Business, San Jose, SJSU, Tax policy, Tax research

Duration : 0:1:58

Technorati Tags: Annette Nellen, COB, College of Business, San Jose, SJSU, Tax policy, Tax research

Professor Foxs lecture focused on Making taxation more equitable. His talk illustrated the need for major systemic tax reforms as a matter of social justice. With the elections of President Obama and Prime Minister Rudd, Fox emphasized that governments have a fresh opportunity to now undertake a major reform of tax policies in order create a more just tax system.

Duration : 0:2:36

Technorati Tags: Equity, John Fox, tax, taxation

John O. Fox spent 36 years wrestling with the tax laws as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the highly praised book If Americans Really Understood the Income Tax (Westview, 2001). Mr. Fox has commented frequently about tax issues on radio and television, and his articles on whats right and wrong with the U.S. revenue system have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. He teaches Winners and Losers, a course on U.S. tax policy at Mount Holyoke College.

Duration : 0:2:45

Technorati Tags: Equity, John Fox, tax, taxation

John O. Fox spent 36 years wrestling with the tax laws as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the highly praised book If Americans Really Understood the Income Tax (Westview, 2001). Mr. Fox has commented frequently about tax issues on radio and television, and his articles on whats right and wrong with the U.S. revenue system have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and many other newspapers. He teaches Winners and Losers, a course on U.S. tax policy at Mount Holyoke College.

Duration : 0:3:6

Technorati Tags: Social Justice, tax, Tax Equity, taxation