June 18, 2005

Ireland Rues Creative Tax Benefit
by Lorraine Berry

In 1969, Ireland, tired of losing its creative class to other lands, decided to pass a law that exempted creative works from taxation. That's about to end:

Ireland, the land of saints, scholars and scribes, still nurtures a guilt complex for banning and exiling its greatest literary names. Joyce, Beckett, Wilde and Shaw all fled its mean-spirited ways. So for the last 35 years, the world's smallest cultural superpower has consoled itself with a unique act of generosity: writers, artists and composers are spared from paying tax.

But Celtic Tiger Ireland is now being accused of reverting to its old philistine ways as the government consults in secret on whether to scrap the scheme.

Detractors claim that tax-avoiding British writers are taking advantage, and that an elite of millionaire popstars is using it to get rich. The Arts Council is outraged, arguing that Ireland faces losing "one of the most enlightened pieces of legislation ever introduced for the arts in any country".

The mind boggles to think that a nation might actually encourage artistic production. Imagine such a law in the United States: instead of giving corporations tax breaks, we give them to starving artists.

Posted by in Creative Class, Culture, Economics, Europe, Intellectual Property, Literature, Publishing, Sidelinks, Writing
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