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Artists’ tax exemption comes under the spotlight
24 January 2010 By Ian Kehoe
The government plans to tighten up the rules governing the controversial artists’ exemption in an effort to curb the growing numbers who are claiming the tax relief.
The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism is working with the Revenue Commissioners and the Arts Council on a major review of the scheme, particularly the guidelines that set out who can qualify for tax relief.
The review will then be submitted to the Department of Finance and it is expected that new guidelines will impose stricter rules on the use of the relief.
Under the scheme, artists can claim a tax exemption on the first €125,000 of their earnings.
The perk is granted to a work that is creative and original and is generally recognised to have artistic merit.
However, an increasing number of people have managed to avail of the relief, including former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who was granted the tax exemption for earnings from his autobiography.
Ahern was among 69 recent additions to the list of tax-free artists. The new additions include 33 writers, 18 painters, five playwrights and scriptwriters, three musicians, three installation artists, three photographers, two sculptors and one illustrator.
The scheme, which was introduced by former taoiseach Charles Haughey, provides a tax exemption on five categories: a book or other writings ; a play; a musical composition; a painting or other like picture; and a sculpture.
The tax exemption is policed by the Revenue Commissioners.
However, the legislation does not include a definition of the term ‘the arts’, and the guidelines were last reviewed by the government and Arts Council in 1994.
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