ARTSCAPE:'ABSOLUTELY coincidental" is how Fine Gael Mayo TD Michael Ring describes his decision to call for a review of the artists' tax exemption on the same day that the Western Development Commission (WDC) published a report on arts and the west, writes Lorna Siggins.
The WDC report forecast that the region’s “creative sector” could be employing 13,000 people – and said that some 11,000 people, or 3 per cent of the workforce, were already engaged in arts-based activities.
Some 4,779 “creative businesses” in the west have a combined turnover of €534 million, contributing €270 million in gross value-added terms to the economy, the study by Oxford Economics and Perceptive Insight Market Research said.
Ring, who is Fine Gael’s spokesman on community, rural and gaeltacht affairs, is well aware that there are artists, musicians and writers in his own constituency who are “struggling to make a living”. However, he emphasises he is not talking about them, or anyone working in the arts and earning less than €30,000, when proposing a review of the tax break for artists initiated by the late Charles J Haughey in 1969.
“I had a widow and mother of a family on to me during the week, who is on €32,000 a year and is having to pay the Government’s 1 per cent levy,” he says. “Yet you have the Bonos and the Cecelia Aherns of this world making a fortune and eligible for this exemption. It is time these people made a contribution to the State instead of running all over the world telling us how we should spend taxpayers’ money. We all have to take a bit of pain.”
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan told Ring in a Dáil written reply that a total of €273.9 million has been written off by the Revenue Commissioners over the period 1994 to 2005 on the scheme. Significantly, eligible applicants have quadrupled in the decade from 1995 to 2005. Lenihan said that in 1994/95 a total of 520 artists availed of the scheme at a cost of €6.5m. Figures for further years were: 1995/96, 525 at €10.3m; 1996/97, 700 for €13.2m; 1997/98, 800 for €19.8m; 1998/99, 900 for €24.5m; 1999/2000, 940 for €29.9m; 2000/01, 1,200 for €37.2m; 2001, 1,430 for €25.7m; 2002, 1,600 for €23.9m; 2003, 1,700 for €22.5m; 2004, 1,970 for €32.1m and 2005, 2,220 for €34.8m.
The Department of Finance told The Irish Times this week that no specific review was taking place, but the scheme would be considered as part of the Commission on Taxation review due out later this year.
Over Ring's constituency border, artists are "taking a bit of pain" in support of their community. Five new volunteers with the Sligo/Leitrim mountain rescue team need "suiting and booting", and artist and rescue volunteer Heidi Wickham is curating an art sale, entitled The Art of Recovery, to raise funds for this.
Participating artists include Sean McSweeney, Brigit Beemster, Nick Miller, Annie West, Tessa Marsden, Cormac O’Leary, Tom O’Rourke and Wickham herself. The exhibition is at Teach Bán Nua Gallery, Drumcliffe, next to WB Yeats’s resting place, from March 7th to 14th. For more information, e-mail tomporourke@hotmail.com.
Deirdre Falvey adds: While Michael Ring has singled out the high earners such as Cecelia Ahern and Bono, the vast bulk of those whose artistic earning is not taxed must have guffawed hollowly to hear the artists' tax exemption rearing its head again. Yes, there is undoubtedly a very small number of rich artists who certainly don't need the break and whose access to the exemption is absolutely unjustifiable – and U2 has rightly come in for criticism again this week – and responded to it yesterday in The Ticket in The Irish Times. But, aside from a (probably generous) handful at the top, the tax exemption mostly applies to artists who earn a pittance. The Arts Council did some research before the €250,000 cap was introduced in 2006 (which led to U2's publishing arm upping sticks to the Netherlands. Shame on them.) It showed the average earnings of the bottom 50 per cent of beneficiaries in 2001 was €5,213 (the average industrial wage was then €11,000).
Around 48 per cent of those claiming relief earned between €10,000 and €50,000, most of them close to the lower end of the bracket. The exemption is just for artistic work – other work to top it up and earn a living is taxed normally.
For many, the exemption is what makes it possible to make a career as an
artist. It would be great to see some of the high-earning artists who benefit – mainly in rock music and writing – pop their heads above the parapet and do the decent thing. As in the financial and building sectors, their poor behaviour is doing a disservice to the rest.
The Sydney festival is over, but the Irish presence in Australia is still strong, this time on the western side of the continent. Fabulous Beast's Gisellemakes its Australian debut at the Perth Festival from this weekend, and Druid has just finished a run of New Electric Ballroom, while Sebastian Barry is reading there on Monday – which, combined, represents quite a range of Irish artistic talent. For Fabulous Beast, in particular, the Culture Ireland-supported exposure down under keeps that beautiful and startling dance piece's ensemble working together regularly, which in turn leads to the creation of new work. And, on the subject of new work, Fabulous Beast is running some dance training with DanceHouse in April, with workshops led by Michael Keegan-Dolan and several Fabulous company members. Applications must be in by March 17th.
A number of Irish production companies already have plans in the pipeline for presenting work in Edinburgh in August. Culture Ireland plans to support some companies/artists (theatre, dance and cabaret in particular) and has a separate application for those planning to take their shows to the Edinburgh International Festival or the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year.
Deadline is Monday March 9th.
See details on www.cultureireland.gov.ie.
Rough Magic is at the technological coalface with its promotion of the Irish premiere of Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer,the Montreal play by Michel Tremblay (new translation by Bryan Delaney, directed by Tom Creed), which runs from March 5th at Project Arts Centre. As well as spreading the word through bloggers and twitterers, and a YouTube trailer (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=9GaIJynUnB8), the company has set up a dedicated, interactive website solely for the production; have a look, have your say, at www.solemnmass.ie.
