Arctic Monkeys : from men of the people to tax-dodgers | Music

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  • Arctic Monkeys: from men of the people to tax-dodgers
    http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/11/arctic-monkeys-tax-avoidance-liberty

    Rock stars have long held an ambivalent view towards paying their fair share of tax. But when the band in question pride themselves on having the common touch, it’s especially hard to stomach

    Criticism should especially apply to the Arctic Monkeys – whose members have sheltered up to £1.1m in the Channel Islands – as they’ve long traded on their image as a band of the people, with Turner cast as a working-class hero, a snotty, sharp-minded northern kid in the mould of the young Lennon, cutting through the bullshit and telling it like it is. They could do with a reminder of just how much they owe to the state they’re so reluctant to fund. Singer Alex Turner may have ascended to the elite, dating models and living the high life, but taxation paid for the hospital where he was born, the school where he was educated and the schools which paid his (teacher) parents’ wages, the street lamps that lit his way home from rehearsals, and the benefits that sustained his bandmates when they were out of work.

    #fiscalité