The Stage

Prominent Irish artists benefit from tax breaks

Published Tuesday 5 April 2005 at 10:35 by Anthony Garvey

Some of the leading names in Irish showbusiness and the arts feature on a list compiled by the Irish Revenue Commissioners of more than 1,500 people who have benefited from the artists’ tax exemption scheme in recent years.

Published on March 31, the list includes Sinead O’Connor and Samantha Mumba, along with singer/songwriter Elvis Costello, Cait O’Riordan of The Pogues, performer Brian Kennedy and Christy Dignam, leader singer with Aslan. Former Eurovision winner Eimear Quinn, Irish tenor Finbar Wright, singer-songwriter David Kitt and Kenyan-born Roger Whittaker are also among those listed.

Playwrights Conor McPherson and Mark O’Rowe are named, together with two other Dubliners, film directors Kirsten Sheridan and Damien O’Donnell. Father Ted’s evergreen housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, better known as actress Pauline McLynn, earned tax relief for her books and writer and performer Mannix Flynn was also granted exemption.

Another beneficiary was BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson, who claimed - and won - tax relief on three books written while living in Dublin.

The amounts earned tax-free by those named are not revealed. The list, released under the Freedom of Information Act, which was introduced in 1998, only covers from that year until 2001. Those who qualified for the scheme before this period - and they include multimillionaires like U2, the Corrs, Westlife, Van Morrison and Enya - are not publicly named.

The scheme is estimated to cost the state around €40m a year in lost tax revenue. It was introduced more than 40 years ago by the then finance minister Charles Haughey, to help struggling artists and promote creative endeavour. Now, with growing public unease that multimillionaires are getting off tax free, current finance minister Brian Cowen has ordered a review of the scheme, with changes likely to be introduced in the next budget.

Following publication of the latest list, the Irish Labour Party has urged that all artists earning more than €100,000 a year should lose the tax-free status on their artistic income. It suggested that the extra revenue collected “should be redirected towards struggling artists”.

But the Irish Arts Council, which is preparing a submission for Minister Cowen on the review, is against any such change. Council director Mary Cloake claimed that more than half the artists in Ireland earned less than €10,000 in 2001, “so the tax exemption is irrelevant for most of them”.

As for high-earning artists, she said the scheme encouraged them to continue living in Ireland, enhancing the country’s international image while promoting a vibrant artistic community at home.