U2's tax dealings have been a sticky subject over the years, but the latest installment in the band's financial affairs primarily concerns their frontman.
Bono was named in the 'Paradise Papers' leak as an investor in a shopping centre built in Lithuania, which is strange in itself - but the centre was built by a company in Malta, the Mediterranean island known for its low tax rate.
The company in question is under investigation, but Bono told The Guardian in a statement that he would be ' “extremely distressed if even as a passive minority investor... anything less than exemplary was done with my name anywhere near it."
His full statement reads:
"I’ve been assured by those running the company that it is fully tax-compliant, but if that is not the case, I want to know as much as the tax office does, and so I also welcome the audit they have said they will undertake.
I take this stuff very seriously. I have campaigned for the beneficial ownership of offshore companies to be made transparent. Indeed this is why my name is on documents rather than in a trust.
The fact is, I welcome this reporting. It shouldn’t take leaks to understand what’s going on where. There should be public registries so that the press and public can see what governments, like Guernsey, already know."
In recent days, several stars of Mrs. Brown's Boys were also named in the leak, alongside other famous names including Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
