Dutch Treat … Where are the Stones, U2 and Other Euro Stars Sheltering their Money? … The Netherlands of course

I guess the Rolling Stones were not kidding when they wrote the song, “Gimme Shelter”. The Stones, U2, sports stars, movie celebs as well as corporations have been using The Netherlands as their latest tax shelter. Or should we say tax dodge. Aren’t these the same people that talk about America not doing their part? The same people that claim the US exploits other countries? The tax shelter scheme is most interesting on many levels:

• The Limousine liberals that tell us what and how to spend our money seem to be hiding their own. Bono tells other to forgive debt when he hides paying his own.
• Isn’t it Europe that tells the West we are evil capitalists and need to give to the less fortunate? (In 2005, the rockers paid a tax rate of 1.6 percent on earnings of $172 million.”)
• The Netherlands strikes again. (FYI: This offer applies only to Europeans. Americans are ineligible.)

Bono, you absolute and complete hypocrite … telling others to forgive debt.

U2′s Bono is pressing on with his two-year-long battle for Third World debt relief, and he hopes to convince the White House and the American people to join the crusade, he said Friday.

… turned to an unlikely accountant, the Netherlands, to help them avoid paying taxes on multimillion dollar profits in their home countries.

Bands like the Rolling Stones and U2 were publicly outed last summer for using tax shelters in the Netherlands to protect the millions they earn on royalties from getting taxed in their respective home countries. (ABC News)

Who needs the Caymans, Bahamas and other more unstable island and South American nations for banking tax shelter? The beautiful and rich people have been doing this for years. The cause celeb in the tax shelter haven has now become The Netherlands.

They are part of a growing number of celebrities who’ve turned to the low-tax, politically stable Netherlands to protect royalties they earn legally from licensing intellectual property — from J.Lo’s derriere to U2′s hit song “One.”

And the Dutch have beckoned by overhauling their tax structure this past year to make it easier and more lucrative for individuals and corporations to set up shell companies that allow income from royalties, interest and dividends to flow in and out of the country tax-free.

The holding companies and corporate shell that are created are merely mailbox companies that allow royalties to be collected in a tax free environment. A rather interesting situation when one contemplates all the whining that Bono has done in that Countries should forgo debt owned from the poorer nations of the world.

“So every time their song is played on the radio, or they sell an album, royalties are paid to their Dutch company, which allows them to collect millions of dollars in royalties tax-free and lowers the profits they’re paying taxes on in their home countries,” LeVine says.

Mailbox companies, or corporate shells, allow companies to channel royalties, dividends and interest payments through the Netherlands. More than 20,000 exist right now, according to a report by the Netherlands-based SOMO, the Center for Research on Multinationals.

Read some of the great comments from Lucianne.com regarding this matter.

The Daily Mail also with some interesting commentary, “Bono! Sinead O’Connor! The limo liberals strike again, preaching their spiel about how governments should do more — especially Bono — while working every angle to miserly hang on to every penny.”

Also the Tax Professor Blog, Gimme Shelter: Rolling Stones Use Netherlands Tax Shelter to Reduce Tax Rate to 1.5%

over the last 20 years, according to Dutch documents, the three musicians have paid just $7.2 million in taxes on earnings of $450 million that they have channelled through Amsterdam — a tax rate of about 1.5%, well below the British rate of 40%.