| More stars join Ireland’s tax-free
status  A
EUROVISION singer, the daughter of U2’s manager and the star of
a former BBC TV hit series are amongst the latest 115 writers, musicians
and artists who have been granted tax-free status in Ireland.
Waterford-born You’re A Star winner Chris Doran Ireland’s
Eurovision representative in Istanbul in 2004 has been granted the perk
for musical composition.
Actress and writer Alexandra McGuinness, 22, has been granted tax-free
status for her screenplays.
The daughter of U2 manager Paul McGuinness she has appeared in the RTÉ
drama series The Clinic and has acted in a number of feature films.
Carol Drinkwater who became a TV heartthrob when she played the young
wife of a country vet in the BBC series All Creatures Great And Small
will not pay any tax on earnings from her books Akin To Love and Twentieth
Century Girl.
Controversy about the tax scheme has intensified after Revenue figures
showed 28 unidentified artists had earnings of between ?500,000 and ?10million
and paid no tax on their artistic income.
One mystery artist thought to be one of the country’s super-rich
rock stars earned ?10million in a year without paying any tax.
Beneficiaries have included superstar rock groups like U2, The Corrs,
Boyzone and Westlife, singers like Enya and Chris de Burgh and bestselling
authors like Cecelia Ahern, daughter of the Taoiseach.
The new additions to the tax-perk list include 49 painters, 18 authors,
17 playwrights and screen writers, 12 pop stars and musicians, 13 sculptors
and six photographers.
On the list is half-Irish, half-Norwegian singer Bjorn Baillie, his brother
Simon and Alana Redmond of the La Rocca band.
Limerick-based songwriter Eoin Coughlan, who recently released his debut
solo album Blood In Vein, gets tax-free status along with Maev Ni Mhaolchatha
of Celtic Woman, jazz musician Ronan Guilfoyle and You’re a Star
finalist David Hope.
Earnings from Tana French’s Irish-based debut crime novel In The
Woods will be tax free as will the income from The Gentle Art Of Rotting
a poetry collection from New Zealand-born Ross Hattaway.
The scheme is unique in the world for allowing artists to keep all their
earnings though they do pay PRSI. It was introduced by the late Taoiseach
Charles Haughey in 1969 to show that the country valued creative people.
|
