My throughts on this article, what Bono is doing with his money is his business and what he donates is between him and God! I'm busy doing the Lords will so I don't have time watching Bono! What was the point if this article, the berean call is right on about alot of things but this article was like to me....ok...they have alot of money......don't be hate in'. Anyway, like I said what he does with his money is his business and I'm not making it mine.
Bono, Who Preaches Charity, Profits From Buyouts, Tax Breaks [Excepts]
During the final concert of U2's world tour on Dec. 9, Bono, the Irish
rock
band's lead singer, launched into "One," a song about a love affair
gone
sour. "Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?" he
sang to
47,000 U2 fans at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.
At Bono's command, some of the fans held aloft their cell phones and
sent
text messages of support to ONE, the U.S.-based group that's lobbying
the
U.S. government to donate an additional 1 percent of the federal budget
to
ending poverty.
Bono made the same tie-in for the lobbying group during most of the 131
concerts on the Vertigo tour, which began in March 2005 and was seen by
4.6
million fans in Europe, North America and Asia. They sent about 500,000
text
messages of support to ONE, according to the group.
While Bono was making his appeal, U2 was racking up $389 million in
gross
ticket receipts, making Vertigo the second-most lucrative tour of all
time,
according to Billboard magazine. No. 1 is the Rolling Stones' current
tour,
which by the end of 2006 had received $425 million.
Revenue from the Vertigo tour is funneled through companies that are
mostly
registered in Ireland and structured to minimize taxes. "U2 are
arch-capitalists -- arch-capitalists -- but it looks as if they're
not,"
says Jim Aiken, a music promoter who helped stage U2 concerts in
Ireland
during the 1980s and 1990s.
U2 has sold about 9 million copies of the album linked to the Vertigo
tour,
"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," for which it owns all rights. In
addition, U2 sells merchandise at the concerts, such as a $30 T-shirt
with a
photo of the band on the front.
With his trademark wraparound sunglasses and cowboy hat, Bono is as
famous
for exhorting world leaders -- from U.S. President George W. Bush to
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern
--
to give money to Africa as he is for his music.
The 46-year-old Dublin native, born Paul Hewson, is also focusing on
his
investments. Bono declined to be interviewed for this article.
Bono's own dealings haven't always followed the altruistic ideals he
espouses, says Richard Murphy, a Downham Market, U.K.- based adviser to
the
Tax Justice Network, an international lobbying group.
Murphy points to the band's decision to move its music publishing
company to
the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006 in order to minimize taxes.
The
move came six months before Ireland ended an exemption on musicians'
royalty
income, which is generally untaxed in the Netherlands.
"This is somebody who's exceptionally rich taking the opportunity to
shift
his tax burden to somebody else, but then asking governments around the
world to spend that tax take in the way that he would like," Murphy
says.
In addition, Bono shares three homes with his wife and four children,
including a house near Nice in the south of France, a duplex apartment
overlooking New York's Central Park that he bought from Apple Inc.'s
Steve
Jobs, and a gated estate in Killiney, 10 miles south of Dublin, with a
panoramic view of the Irish Sea.
"We don't think this fits with Bono's image, and we're trying to get
him to
recognize this fact," says Chuck Kaufman, a Washington-based spokesman
for
the international Venezuela Solidarity Network, which supports the
government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
While Bono promotes charitable causes, he doesn't disclose whether he
personally gives any money to them and, if so, how much. These include
Amnesty International, the Burma Campaign U.K., DATA, which stands for
Debt,
AIDS, Trade and Africa, the environmental group Greenpeace and ONE.
"It's actually, I think, more honest to say we're rock stars, we're
havin'
it large, we're havin' a great time and don't focus on charity too much
--
that's private; justice is public,'' he told the Dublin-based Sunday
Independent newspaper in June 2005.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aqdKjGJi9cHc&refer=home
