Bono and Jimmy Carr have both in their time been revealed as tax avoiders. But there's a big difference.
Jimmy Carr has said he was badly advised, has admitted he's made a big mistake and has said he'll change. We've all made mistakes. He's admitted his. It's time to accept the apology and move on.
Bono hasn't admitted any mistake. He's argued it's his right to be "tax efficient", using tax haven practices of the sort also used to fleece billions from developing countries each year to enhance his already immense personal wealth. He's even gone so far as to argue that tax avoidance is one of the great Irish exports.
No wonder UK Uncut targeted Bono. They were right to do so. He deserves no respect at all. And he does continue to deserve to be named for being the hypocrite he is.
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By Jimmy Carr admitting it was wrong, surely that is admitting that the economic rationale of being paid through K2 did not exist and hence HMRC can now definitely attack and recover back taxes? And I thought these types of structures had been successfully attacked over the past decade, so how do people keep coming up with ways to run them? Surely it is a simple thing to introduce specific legislation to prevent them or is this where a GAAR is necessary?
I am shocked by the number of people on comments pages, letters pages and even people that I have spoken to, that think that what he did was justified. And that includes a lot of people on relatively low income.
People appear to have quite incredibly low ability to reason
I find that amazing
Legal = moral for most
A touching and wholly inappropriate belief in politicians on this occassion
The reason is simple: Jimmy Carr is perceived as a left-wing, “edgy” comedian. Hence he can do no wrong.
“It’s time to accept the apology and move on.”
Almost. We haven’t heard whether he has paid the avoided tax, plus any interest. After that we can move on.
There is a further difference between the two. Bono’s personal presentation and ostentatious hypocrisy are so ridiculous he is at least funny enough to qualify as a comedian. Jimmy Carr is not funny.
“Jimmy Carr is not funny.”
Oh come on! Each to his own, of course, but in my opinion, he’s one of the best comic performers in the country!
As to his tax avoidance (or was it evasion?) he has slightly redeemed himself in my eyes by admitting he made a mistake.
As Bernard sas though, we can only really move on when we hear that he has paid back the avoided (or evaded) tax!
Well said Richard. Spot on as usual.
for a civilised country with a strong legal tradition, how did we find ourselves in this sorry situation of a great chasm between legality and morality on tax avoidance? the legal establishment (including retired law lords like lord hoffmann, leading academics like professor freedman, both of whom assisted graham aaronson qc in cooking up his sham anti abuse rule, and top barristers like aaronson himself) should have a good look at themselves in the mirror. the big money involved in tax avoidance has spawned an extremely lucrative tax avoidance industry that captured the legal institutions and universities. i am in awe of the likes of richard that fought them to a standstill with very little resources over the years. who say’s the david v goliath story is fairy tale?
I’m not defending Bono by any means but it is rather misleading to compare the U2 tax situation with Jimmy Carr. U2 only moved part of their business to the Netherlands following the introduction by the Irish government of a new tax on Irish artists’ royalties. U2 apparently objected on the grounds that over 95 of their income from royalties comes from non-Irish sales but when the government refused to budge they moved that part of their business to the Netherlands where a lower tax rate on royalties applies. Other artists took similar actions but only U2’s appears to have been publicised.
Articles in the press imply U2 do not pay any tax in Ireland but as a company which employs dozens of people U2 still pays millions of euros of tax in Ireland as do the individual band members. The move of part of their business to the Netherlands is undoubtedly a PR disaster and doesn’t sit well with Bono’s drive to increase the percentage of GDP given to oversea’s aid. It looks as if the band have gone some way to mitigate the move by recently donating millions of euros to a school music programme which funds Irish teachers and instruments.
Bono wanted his income tax free
That’s cheating
Beginning and end of story
But then he has the cheek to say governemtns should fund his demands
Left-wing comedians get sacked from writing columns for The Guardian, perform at benefits for obscure pressure groups, make documentaries in Palestine and mention the moment Marx clicked for them in interviews. Jimmy Carr read out a joke about Barclays.
Jimmy Carr has a degree in political science from Cambridge. So he’s aware of public goods and how they’re paid for. He was a practising Christian until his mid-20s. So he would have heard a lot about right and wrong. After university he worked in marketing at Shell. So he’s familiar with large numbers.
Jimmy Carr has a good reputation on the comedy circuit. He bankrolls ventures by non-commercial colleagues. He writes a lot of material (and doesn’t steal it). He’s written a guide to creating jokes. [Comedy used to be like The Magic Circle: how to write a joke was a big secret.] He’s explained in interviews how he changed his career. He’s helped friends change their career. There are plenty of journalists who get paid for repeating Jimmy Carr’s jokes.
On stage, stand-up comedians appear edgy because they want their audience to believe that they, and they alone, can see through the stupidity of everyday life. Off stage, comedians are quasi-self-employed businessmen. The profession is very competitive: they face off a few hundred drunks every night. They have to demonstrate that they are the funniest person in the room every time they speak. There are thousands of other comedians telling jokes about [whatever]. They want to be the one who gets paid a fortune by television to tell theirs. Even their act itself — the product development life cycle of writing, road-testing and weeding out jokes — is driven by market forces.
Their routines ridicule convention but their life is a free market existence red in tooth and claw. As such, it’s not easy to work out a comedian’s politics (unless he or she declares it).
Why do people who pay next-to-nothing in tax worry about which party offers the biggest tax cuts? They should vote for the party that promises the biggest cuts to HMRC.
Jim Davidson proposed a 30% flat rate of tax. He lives in Dubai. He’s not going to pay it but he thinks that British people who earn less than £35k p.a. [about 80% of the workforce?] should pay an extra 10% each. Jimmy Carr doesn’t pay it either but he says corporations should. Is this how self-made millionaires understand politics?