Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien has made a six-figure settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in respect of earnings from journalism dating back to the early 1980s. Liam Reid reports.
The former government minister had believed earnings from all his writing, including his newspaper columns, were tax-free under the Artists' Exemption Scheme.
However, following comments on his tax affairs in a radio programme in 1998, he was served with a significant tax demand by the Revenue Commissioners.
In the last 12 months, after protracted negotiations, Dr Cruise O'Brien made the settlement.
Yesterday his wife, the poet and author, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, confirmed that Dr Cruise O'Brien had made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners, but declined to comment further.
The figure paid is thought to include tax on earnings, as well as interest, dating back to the late 1970s.
Dr Cruise O'Brien (86) has been a contributor to various newspapers since leaving the Dáil in 1977.
He was editor of the Observer between 1979 and 1981.
From 1981 to 1986 he was a weekly columnist with The Irish Times, before moving to the Irish Independent.
According to his 1998 memoir, journalism was his main source of income in the 1980s.
He has also written more than 20 books, including studies of Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson.
Dr Cruise O'Brien previously said that he had not paid tax on his earnings from writing for newspapers because he believed they came under the Artist's Exemption Scheme. The scheme, introduced by former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey, makes published writing of artistic or cultural merit exempt from tax.
Many books, including Dr Cruise O'Brien's, qualify for the exemption, but the law specifically excludes journalistic work.
In 1998, during a radio interview on Tonight With Vincent Browne, the former Labour minister said he had never paid tax on his journalism, believing it should be exempt in the same way as his books.
He said that, after initially accepting the argument about his newspaper work, the Revenue had shown "a strong inclination to tax it", and that the disagreement had "continued intermittently over a good many years".
It is believed Dr Cruise O'Brien received the advice that his journalism work was exempt from the late accountant, Mr Russell Murphy.
Mr Murphy died in 1984, with his financial affairs in disarray.
A number of high-profile clients, including Gay Byrne and Hugh Leonard, lost significant sums of money they had given to the accountant to invest on their behalf.