The Netherlands among musicians favorite tax havens.

[sphinxsix]

An interesting article:

 

Dutch tax authorities allowed celebrities to use the Netherlands as tax haven for decades

 

"Bands, such as AC/DC, the Rolling Stones, ABBA and U2 have their music rights in the Netherlands. Follow the Money uncovered this by digging deep into the website discogs.com which contains extensive artist discographies.

Other artists that had their music rights in the Netherlands were Julio Iglesias, Robert Palmer, Eurythmics, Placido Domingo, Riccardo Cocciante, Vaya Con Dios and Giorgio Moroder. In total, around 50 artists and bands used the Netherlands to avoid taxes."

 

If someone asked me about my opinion - it's a shame. Tax havens have to end, regardless where they are, period. An average earning person pays at least 20-30% tax and some billionaire manages to pay a couple percent or nothing at all while people in so called 3rd world starve and have no medical care..

Once again, if someone asked me..

This attitude must simply disappear. Just world. Just one. Not three. That's my personal view.

Am I a crazy idealist or maybe this is actually the only way for this world to survive.?

What do you think, guys.?

 

[WAM]

Old news. But I agree. Don't start me talking about Dutch tax laws... But it's not only in the Netherlands. Look at the US, the filthy rich are experts in avoiding taxes.     Wealthy Dutch "move" to Belgium. Well paid athletes move to Andorra, Monaco,  etc. 

 

Everybody wants their governments to take care of the the old folks, the sick, etc. everybody wants decent education for everyone, an army to guard our way of life, etc. The problem is nobody wants to pay for it.

But an empire on the cheap is a illusion (ask the Brits...),

 

But let's talk music, now listening to Joni Mitchell, Coyote.

[RickyV]

Hate it, they are all basterds, basterds, basterds. 

[AudioDoctor]

Few things make me angrier than the fact that I paid more taxes than a billionaire like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk for example, or a fake billionaire like donald dumpo.

[seeteeyou]

Definitely take a look at this book, it's mind-boggling and eye-opening to realize what the truth is meant to be IMHO

 

https://braveneweurope.com/the-divide-a-brief-guide-to-global-inequality-and-its-solutions-by-jason-hickel

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Bono, who has prolifically used the tax haven system “that siphons revenues out of global South countries”. It is the old American Robber Baron philanthropy in hipster garb.

 

 

 

https://gfintegrity.org/press-release/new-report-on-unrecorded-capital-flight-finds-developing-countries-are-net-creditors-to-the-rest-of-the-world/

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Tax Havens have been Key Facilitators of Movements of Licit and Illicit Capital out of and into Developing Countries

 

https://gfintegrity.org/report/financial-flows-and-tax-havens-combining-to-limit-the-lives-of-billions-of-people/

Quote

Titled “Financial Flows and Tax Havens: Combining to Limit the Lives of Billions of People,” the report demonstrates that developing countries have effectively served as net-creditors to the rest of the world with tax havens playing a major role in the flight of unrecorded capital. For example, in 2011 tax haven holdings of total developing country wealth were valued at US$4.4 trillion, which exacerbated inequality and undermined good governance and economic growth.

 

Global inequality: Do we really live in a one-hump world?

https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/3/17/two-hump-world

 

Extreme poverty isn’t natural, it’s created

https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2021/3/28/extreme-poverty-isnt-natural-it-is-created

 

It might not be necessarily a happy journey to go through that book, much like the unsettling fact that billions in the world ain't exactly living their lives happily.

[seeteeyou]

6 hours ago, WAM said:

But let's talk music, now listening to Joni Mitchell, Coyote.

 

So in reality it really does look more like this

 

 

https://jasonhickel.org/s/Hickel-et-al-Plunder-in-the-post-colonial-era.pdf

https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1377180182172160002

 

https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1377180184986578945

Quote

Over the past few years, drain from the global South has outstripped the flow of aid by a factor of 14.  In other words, for every $1 the South receives in aid it loses $14 through unequal exchange.

 

https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1377180202652999692

 

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While they're actually trying to sell us an idea just like this

 

 

 

 

https://www.icij.org/investigations/mauritius-leaks/treasure-island-leak-reveals-how-mauritius-siphons-tax-from-poor-nations-to-benefit-elites/

Quote

In 1985, Geldof launched the Live Aid concert of top-tier rock stars held in London and Philadelphia that raised more than $140 million for famine relief. He received an honorary knighthood the next year at age 34.

 

Quote

After soaring to fame in the 1980s for organizing Live Aid and other anti-famine efforts, the former Boomtown Rats rocker had shifted to the high-powered world of international finance. He founded a U.K.-based private equity firm that aimed to generate a 20% return by buying stakes in African businesses, according to a memorandum from an investor.

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kz7gv/the-west-extorts-way-more-money-from-africa-than-it-gives-in-aid

Quote

The other main narrative is the more familiar one: hapless Africa, the tragic continent that can only continue to survive with the help of aid money provided to it by outsiders. This is the narrative of Live Aid and Bono, the story told to us immediately after news reports of famine and unrest in places that, we are made to believe, just can't get by without western charity.

 

Quote

The report, entitled Honest Accounts 2017 , finds that the countries of Africa are "collectively net creditors to the rest of the world, to the tune of $41.3 billion [£32.2 billion] in 2015".

Rather than Africa being a hapless continent dependent on the rest of the world, it is the exploited continent whose natural resources are enriching a local and global elite at the expense of the vast majority of its citizens, and whose governments can do little about the illegal syphoning of revenue into tax havens.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/feb/27/u2-irish-aid-group-coalition

Quote

"We wanted to raise our concern that while Bono has championed the cause of fighting poverty and injustice in the impoverished world, the fact is that his band has moved part of its business to a tax shelter," DDCI's Nessa Ni Chasaide told ITN. "Tax avoidance and tax evasion costs the impoverished world at least $160m (£142.5m) every year. This is money urgently required to bring people out of poverty."

 

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Heck, that's what they've been doing behind the scenes while expecting us to believe it's all rainbows and unicorns after all these years.

 

 

The day is most certainly so much brighter, just for the global North that is IMHO.

[sphinxsix]

 

Shocking stuff!