The Edge: Ireland has ‘no problem’ with U2 tax status

The Art Uncut tax protestors who unfurled an inflatable banner at Glastonbury calling for U2 to pay their taxes may have been ignored by the Irish headliners, but the activists' antics appear to have hit a raw nerve with at least one member of the band.

The Edge, real name David Evans, has now gone on the record to state that the Irish authorities are perfectly happy for U2 to pay tax overseas and has also claimed that he and other members of the band have paid "many, many millions" of dollars of tax in America.

He made the announcement in the Baltimore Sun. Quite why he was reading the paper is not clear, but he was less than impressed to come across a flurry of letters in its pages that culminated with a missive from reader Simon Moroney who accused the band of trying to avoid paying taxes and said that The Edge's old friend Bono embodied the "worst characteristics of Wall Street".

The furore began back in June when the paper carried a piece by "conservative writer and rock fan" Matt Patterson that purported to outline the "somewhat chequered history of the band's activism" and claimed the "U2 organisation has gone out of its way to reduce its own tax burden".

That led to a response from a Maryland senator defending the band and the efforts of Bono's ONE foundation.

But Moroney followed that up with a letter that infuriated The Edge. Moroney claimed that in Ireland there had been "calls from some government ministers for Bono to pay his taxes so the country can keep hospitals and schools open. Those appeals have fallen on deaf ears, despite the fact that Bono and U2 have extensively traded on being Irish to engender fan loyalty".

He also described ONE as "a lobbying group with no mandate or accountability, set up by a man who is not even a US citizen. It has no relevant expertise on aid policy, let alone on the best interests of Maryland taxpayers".

Five days later The Edge's response appeared in the same paper, and it was clear that he was not happy. He described the allegations about the band's tax matters as "totally false and possibly libellous".

He also claimed the Irish government had "no problem with U2 basing some of their business activities in Holland" and that "U2 and its members have paid many, many millions of dollars in taxes to the United States Internal Revenue Service over the years." ·