Comments on: Bertie Ahern and the artists’ tax exemption

By: John Smith

John Smith — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:41:12 +0000

On footnote 3 there are two people to apply to if your submission is rejected and one is Bertie Ahern’s brother-in-law. Small world.

By: John Smith

John Smith — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:36:19 +0000

Bertie is in the list as a politician his book is deemed to be of cultural interest.

Shane Ross should have said his banking book was political and he could have got the same treatment.

By: Conan

Conan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:28:25 +0000

My understanding is that the way the scheme works with other (non creative) income is that it pushes the other income into the higher tax brackets. So, as an example, if Art ui Craftaigh earned €50,000 from artsy painting and €50,000 from a day job the latter amount would be counted as earned income €50,001 to €100,000 and taxed accordingly. He couldn’t avail of the lower tax band on the first portion of it.

I may be wrong.

By: John Burns

John Burns — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:03:00 +0000

It does put him over the cap. But I would imagine that he and his publishers agreed to make the payment over two tax years – 180k in 09 and 180k in 2010.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:24:32 +0000

Just out of curiosity, does the substantial advance he received not count as income earned on the book, and therefore put him over this cap? I’m not sure how this works…

By: pookawoowoo

pookawoowoo — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:27:28 +0000

Total tunic, he is!

By: Mark Coughlan

Mark Coughlan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:03:46 +0000

Thanks for the comments.

@John,

I went searching for that clip but had no luck, seems to online archive for Vincent Browne on RTE only goes back to 2006, strangely.

@Daniel,

Fair comment IMO.

I think there was another comment here that I accidentally deleted. I read it a clicked the wrong “Approve” “Unapprove” or “Trash” option. It was insightful. Sorry to the person who left it, if they’re reading.

By: Every way you look at it you lose « Splintered Sunrise

Every way you look at it you lose « Splintered Sunrise — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:18:51 +0000

[...] eile: I note that Bertie is putting in for the artists’ tax exemption. This surely confirms what we all thought, that De Buke was a [...]

By: Daniel J. O' Keeffe

Daniel J. O' Keeffe — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:31:34 +0000

Bertie Ahern is a degenerate of the highest order. He has brought the country to its knees through reckless mismanagement of the country for the past decade. This makes the blood boil no end. He has absolutely no integrity and no shame, he has made himself a millionaire on the back of these pensions and salaries. It makes me sick.

By: John Burns

John Burns — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:50:33 +0000

The writer to whom Vincent Browne is referring is Conor Cruise O’Brien. Dunno why VB is shy about naming him: if memory serves, the Cruiser told Browne live on air that he was treating all his income from journalism as tax exempt. Whoops. I believe he got a large tax bill from Revenue soon afterwards.

There’s a bit more background in this piece I did recently for Sunday Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6832225.ece