Dutch TV: U2 officially lives in Amsterdam, to avoid paying taxes in Ireland. Now they pay 2% taxes, not 12.5%. U2 saves Ireland in times of crisis, huh?
zembla.vara.nl/Nieuws-detail.2624.0.html?&...Posted Oct 19, 2009, 12:12 PM UTC
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zembla.vara.nl
Same for the Stones. "Over the last 20 years, according to Dutch documents, the three musicians [Jagger, Watts, Richards] have paid just $7.2 million in taxes on earnings of $450 million that they have channeled through Amsterdam — a tax rate of about 1.5 percent, well below the British rate of 40 percent". Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/business/yourmoney/04amster.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=the%20netherlands,%20the%20new%20tax%20shelter%20hot%20spot&st=cse
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Note to self: move to Amsterdam after striking it big.
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Unfortunately this only works if you're European (or Canadian). As Americans we're fortunate enough to have a government (the only industrialized nation that does this) that taxes global income.
It means that even if you live in Amsterdam, have a house there, work there, pay your taxes there, you're still legally obligated to files a US tax return if you're a citizen AND report any and all foreign bank accounts to the IRS. You get an exemption for taxes paid in other countries but the IRS likes to stick it to you.
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I'm Canadian so I'll still stick to this plan, for now.
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U2 has a long and interesting relationship with "ethical flexibility".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativland#The_U2_record_incident
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Yeah right. They live in Amsterdam for the ... taxes.
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I heard they have these coffee shops where you can smoke tax exemptions. Legally!
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Same as IKEA. Famous Swedish company - owner lives in Switzerland but all non-Dutch IKEA companies are run effectively as a kind of franchise and pay for the right to use the name to IKEA Systems which is NL based.
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Ikea is based in NL as a charity organisation.
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Ikea is based in NL as a charity organisation.
Actually IKEA Systems is some kind of for profit organisation but the INGKA Holding has the ownership of all the stores. INGKA Holding is owned by the Stiftung Ingka Foundation which is essentially the non-profit investment trust. Somewhere there is a link from IKEA Systems to the Netherlands Antilles as well. All of this has been documented to an extent in various places including the Economist (hope the paywall doesn't get in the way) and www.ikeafans.com.
Back to your original post, the NL has quite high taxes for individuals and unlike Germany, there are few deductions. However, for companies, it can be exceptionally tax efficient. I have worked at an NL bank and complex corporate structures such as these were seen quite often (And yes I had to cross check the public infor about IKEA as I had seen some private files, all of the above was from the public info).
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In the video they say that individuals living in Holland basically screwed, all the loopholes have been closed. Holland tries to attract large multi-national corporations, on the other hand, by offering low-taxes to them.
Taxes here are quite a bit higher than in the U.S. (where I moved here from). The difference is that you actually get something for what you pay ;)
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Taxes here are quite a bit higher than in the U.S. (where I moved here from). The difference is that you actually get something for what you pay ;)
No shit. I pay an assload in taxes and I never see any kind of return on that "investment".
You moved to Holland from the US? How did that work out for you?
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Michael Pare?
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they're making enough from the prostitution and drug sectors so that they do not to tax the working folk excessively.
extra money from taxing this + saving money from throwing people in jail over it = better fiscal outlook for the whole country.
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They tax the normal workforce, allright. They just don't tax the multinationals. Microsoft has a little office near Schiphol airport too for this reason.
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Don' know why you are being downvoted.
The Dutch work on a near "Freeport" principle. If you essentially tranship your stuff via Rotterdam or Schipol, there is very little in the way of tax when whatever it is is sold onwards into another EU country.
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Yep, they tax sin, but unfortunately they tax the heck out of virtue too but as you say a lot of the money comes around in terms of public services.
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Haha! U2 sounds like they are smart. Here in Ohio, we have these areas called "townships" and they are most of the time tax free except from property taxes. People build these areas out to avoid the 2.0%+ taxes in the cities in addition to the 7.5% state income tax. Living in the townships do not avoid state income taxes though.
Sometimes you have to pay school income taxes too...yeah...a lot of school districts get to take part of paycheck in ADDITION to sucking your for taxing your property!!! Fucking Ohio sucks.
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Well if they live here then tell them to stay away from the Amsterdam ArenA as I like to get home on time and they caused a humongous traffic jam last time they were really here.
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I went to a U2 concert in Tampa very recently and they caused a traffic jam for a few miles of the center of Tampa.
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Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase going Dutch.
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Hey didn't Fox news do a piece on Amsterdam? The armpit of Europe or something along those lines, and you know that Fox is always objective.
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An unshaven armpit!
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Doesn't Ireland give a tax exemption to artists, except for musical artists??
If that's the case, I don't blame any musical artist who evades taxes that his country would not require him to pay if it only considered his art legitimate.
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U12.5
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The libertarians will probably try to justify this by saying "the more you keep, the more you can choose to give away via donations".
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Actually I would justify it as voting with your feet. Why would I want to live in a country that charges an arm and a leg for taxes when I could just as easily not?
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Because (arguably) Ireland supported them before they made it big (artists in Ireland paid little or no tax). U2 should therefore repay their debt to society.
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But why would they owe a debt to society? Even if they did, wouldn't they have already payed it off in the time that they lived there? They were only "supported" by the government while they lived in Ireland so why would they have to keep paying after there is no more support?
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The reason they moved to Holland is because Ireland ended (or limited) the tax breaks for artists.
As I understand it U2 have paid next to no taxes in Ireland. The point of these tax breaks is/was to support up and coming artists, to make it a viable career. It could be argued that without these breaks U2 would have gotten no where. It was Irish taxpayers who helped U2 succeed, so they should help support the system that supported them.
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I'm trying really hard to imagine a less talented and slimier cunt than Paul 'Bono' Hewson. It just ain't happening.
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Yeah, I've always hated Bono since I found out he was literally a giant piece of crap.
He just wants some bitty.
Yeah, at least 30 Courics.