Filthy rich get a full year to learn how to dismantle atomic tax bomb

TO put Brian Cowen’s first budget in context, millionaires like U2 will continue to pay no tax. Neither will horse breeders.

The loopholes that exist to allow the filthy rich contribute absolutely nothing by way of income tax, costing the exchequer €8 billion a year, remain safely in place.

While thousands queued for hours recently to spend some of their after-tax disposable income for the midnight release of the band’s latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2’s legal loopholes were quietly working away to make sure they became even richer.