43 thoughts on “We’re Not Laughing Now

    1. wellllllllll

      if it is never ever to be repaid – it is not a loan, therefore it is income

      so, not really as legal as it appears

  1. Dermie

    Fair Play to them. And to Bono. And to any body who did it. It’s perfectly legal and we would all have done the same were we in their shoes

    1. realPolithicks

      “we would all have done the same were we in their shoes”

      You would perhaps, but not everyone.

      1. rotide

        Do you pay more tax than you’re entitled to pay then?

        Do you look at your yearly p60 and go, ah here, surely i owe a bit mroe than that and throw an extra few grand the revenues way?

        Do you fck. get off the high horse.

        1. Nigel

          I find this argument loses force the further it gets from people who are making ends meet and the deeper it gets into people for whom a few thousand is a rounding error

          1. Nigel

            One empathises more more with someone feverishly calculating deductibles in order to have enough left over to buy new socks for the kids and less with someone whose hobby of dropping porsches out of helicopters onto other porsches can, through various offshore maneuvers, actually make them money. Hence the charge of the argument flips from positive to negative as it applies to the approaches of either pole.

        2. realPolithicks

          As usual you’re talking out of your rear end. I find your use of the phrase “entitled to pay” very odd, if by that you mean that nobody would pay more tax than they are due to pay then well done Captain obvious. Of course that isn’t what I was referring to (as you well know), the point here is that simply because something is legal, that doesn’t make it ethical or something that “everyone” would do. You may well be the kind of person who takes advantage of this kind of “loophole” but not everybody does.

          1. realPolithicks

            “Are you married? Do you pay less tax because of this?”

            You seem very worked up about this, whats your issue?

        3. Clampers Outside!

          In fairness, I and many others I know were giving out about the annual budget tax rate reductions under Bertie in the boom years. It was unsustainable and everyone with a bit of cop in knew it.

          it’s not that uncommon.

  2. If there's one thing I know

    He was only short of licking himself when he so selflessly announced to a Late Late audience that he made a huge donation to the SVP at Christmas. Oh how he lapped up the adoration. Wouldn’t we all love to run tax free and help the helpless as we please. Oh the good grace in it all.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Not the first time he publicized his generosity. I seem to remember he was doing similar on the Joe Duffy show a couple of years back. Hehehehehaaawwww. How the mighty are falling. Cute hoors. How long before we get details of some politician or other with large ‘investments’ and no idea where the readies came from?

  3. Frilly Keane

    Where do they live?

    like if its here and they have funds being made available to them here
    I don’t care how its remitted or from where
    if Ireland is their domiciled address

    then stump up
    wouldn’t it be gas if they claimed Artists expemption

    we’re the laughing stock then

    1. rotide

      They do stump up.

      They stump up as little as is legally possible. Like you buying stuff in lidl because its cheaper than in Centra.

      It’s not complicated.

      1. mildred st. meadowlark

        There’s a whole world of difference between me choosing to shop in lidl because a third of my monthly pay goes towards rent, and choosing to pay p+ss all tax when I’m raking it in.

        And you know it.

          1. Frilly Keane

            What tax break do you get for being married?

            Joint Income; or Single Income Household
            which one

          2. ahjayzis

            That’s policy.

            Loopholes are fupp-ups.

            It’s the spirit v. the letter of the law.

            But you knew that.

      2. Cian

        How many people here have bought stuff on t’internet (from outside the EU) and didn’t declare this to the taxman – to pay your VAT? ’cause that’s illegal ya know.

  4. f_lawless

    My take on these latest so called ‘Paradise Papers’ is that it’s the ‘Panama Papers’ all over again – that the whole thing is probably instigated by US intelligence services who, via the ‘International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ and then through western corporate media outlets, are feeding us a cherry-picked, politicised version of the data.
    The same as the Panama Papers, it’s a kind of so called ‘limited hangout’. This time it’s the likes of Bono, the Queen, Madonna, the Canadian PM, etc who get relatively minor embarrassing revelations (they’re the ‘expendable pawns’); we learn the likes of Nike & Apple are utilising tax avoidance schemes (no surprise there); and mixed in with all that you have some apparent dirt on Russia’s connections to both Trump and also to Facebook and Twitter (2 companies who have been at loggerheads with US intelligence services of late). It stretches credulity that there’s not any more major US economic or political elites implicated in illegal transactions.
    Artice from last year: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Dance-to-the-Panama-Papers-Limited-Hangout-Leak-20160405-0036.html

        1. f_lawless

          no worries ‘tall.. :)
          I don’t frequent the telesurtv one too much but the globalresearch one I find to be consistently good quality – may depend somewhat on one’s world outlook though; a definite focus on anti-western imperialism/corruption

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