I’ve spotted from the recently updated list of determinations from the Revenue Commissioners that Bertie Ahern applied for and has been granted an Artist’s Exemption for his autobiography – Bertie Ahern: The Autobiography.
The book was commissioned by Cornerstone, an imprint of Random House for over €400,000 and has been noted for it’s less than outstanding sales.
The Artists Exemption is not without it’s controversy and Mr. Ahern himself as Taoiseach had said it should be retained but capped.
“If you did away with it altogether you might stop a lot of people from being in the creative arts. That wouldn’t be the object, so I think you have to see what the fair thing to do is”.
Thus Bertie gets to benefit from it not being done away with and it has encouraged him to be in the creative arts no less!
The Revenue Commissioners in their guidelines state
Income earned by writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors from the sale of their works is exempt from income tax in Ireland in certain circumstances.
Section 195, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 empowers the Revenue Commissioners to make a determination that certain artistic works are original and creative works generally recognised as having cultural or artistic merit. Earnings derived from such works are exempt from income tax from the year in which the claim was made.
So the Revenue Commissioners determined that Bertie’s buke had cultural or artistic merit. Given the amount of money involved I assume that Bertie will not be able to claim relief for all of it as a high income individual? Only 50% of his income may be applicable for the relief. (This is the capping that Mr. Ahern referred to in 2005 and Brian Cowen introduced in 2006).
No doubt the accountants can help us determine the tax relief available and the artists and consumers can debate the artistic and cultural merits of the work!
So another Digout Day for the economy-wrecker in chief then?
I imagine that Twenty will have something much less diplomatic that you to say about ‘da buke’.
uberVU - social comments // Jan 5, 2010 at 17:12
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by efdel: Wish we could get the tax exemption for sales of academic texts.
http://bit.ly/8JtwT8…
On a book he didn’t book too. Richard Aldous already has the artist’s exemption.
Doesn’t this essentially mean it’s now officially deemed a work of fiction?
As in, I don;t know any factual writers who have been allowed avail of this…
Last time i checked, exemption only applied to writers of fiction, emphasising the ‘creative’ aspect. Biography/History writers previously have not recieved the exemption to the best of my knowledge.
On a book he didn’t ‘write’ … obviously.
Mark – didn’t Gerry Ryan get it for his biog?
Bertie Ahern, de-yartist – The Story // Jan 5, 2010 at 17:28
[...] New here? You may consider subscribing to our RSS feed or for updates via email.Suzy had the eyes peeled on somewhere none of the rest of us thought of interest. Go read her post. [...]
Ruairi Quinn also received the artists exemption for his memoirs.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/to-tax—–or-not-to-tax-1884798.html
Artist exemption scheme is available to non works of fiction, i.e. historical, the arts, nature etc.
John Hearne, the auther of the Real Gerry, also availed as did Gerry Ryan himself
No matter that he may gain little financially from this, there is something particularly offensive about him even thinking to collect exemption for a book that is not his work. You really couldn’t plumb the depths of his cupidity. Has anybody explored his and his daughter’s relationship with Rupert Murdoch? Harper Collins I believe publishes both Ahern and his offspring.
Is there an exemption for con artists, perhaps?
I know that it is not widely considered important any longer, but here goes …..
Do you know that the possessive pronoun “its” (see second and third sentences of your post) is not spelt “it’s”?
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/apostrophe?view=uk
I have to confess that I sometimes make that mistake. Usually when I’m rushing.
M Collins – did you have nothing better to do than highlight a typo and try and dress it up in an English lesson?
If M Collins hadn’t pointed it out, I would have! Although I probably would have been nicer about it.
Twenty Major: you ask “did you have nothing better to do than highlight a typo and try and dress it up in an English lesson?”
A typo is a typographical error. In this case, we are talking about a different animal, namely either a spelling mistake or a solecism.
Did Bertie ever present SIPO with that tax compliance cert in the end?
What is the story here? He applied for a scheme and got given it. It is not the only biography non-fiction book on the list. for instance
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM – THE LIFE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
HOMAGE TO AL-ANDALU THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAMIC SPAIN
THIS IS CHARLIE BIRD
THE WEXFORD HURLING & FOOTBALL BIBLE 1887-2008, A COMPLETE STATISTICAL HISTORY OF WEXFORD GAA
@ Simon
A. he didnt write it
B he doesnt need it
c. he just got finished screwing the country and now he’s getting a reward.
So that’s blogging dead, then « Gav Reilly | thinking out loud // Jan 6, 2010 at 12:14
[...] with declaring Irish blogging being ‘over’ – as I wrote my comment on the piece, I noticed Suzy’s post revealing that Bertie Ahern’s book earnings have been declared tax-free, a piece that deserves to be picked up by the mainstream media because of its sheer newsworthyness. [...]
Me, personally, would rather see good research and sloppy grammar on a blog anyday than the reverse. Keep up the good work, Maman….
Arthur,
I suspect you are a “troll”, and that is why you wrote “Me, personally…” rather than “I,personally….” in framing your post. I won’t take the bait (or maybe I just did?)
Anyway, why can’t we have BOTH good research (of which Maman Poulet is certainly an example) AND good grammar?
I’m always amused that so many people refuse to spend 30 minutes acquainting themselves with the basics of grammar and punctuation, when they happily spend hours and days on less valuable activities. Even if only some of us think it’s important to get such things right (as a courtesy to the reader), then it’s surely worth the investment of time?
I’m always amused that people who take the time to comment on a blog have nothing to say about the subject of a blog post, instead choosing to tediously hector people about grammar and punctuation as if they were an English teacher.
Perhaps you are an English teacher, M, but this isn’t a classroom.
Twenty Major: one man’s “tedious hectoring” is another man’s “helpful suggestion”. Depends on how sensitive or defensive one is on the matter.
As was pointed out earlier; he didn’t write it. The man never fails to disappoint – how low can he go? Just read about the Robinsons up north – surely not!
It’s amazing how, in a forum which is discussing the ‘artistic’ merits of a political crook who had great difficulty communicating through English, that we end up having a conversation about punctuation.
Crange: yes, it’s stimulating, isn’t it? The endless charms of the blogosphere…. However, I think I should have prefaced my initial contribution by saying how much I valued Mamam Poulet’s initial contribution. That would have adhered to proper blog commenting protocol, and would no doubt have made my tangential comment about punctuation a bit easier to digest. Sorry about that.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
All this carping about an apostrophe! Maman P keep on keeping on. You looked and sounded great on the television the other night. Hope to see more of you talking sense in 2010!
Arts Tax exemption » The Dossing Times // Jan 7, 2010 at 11:42
[...] Tax exemption Maman Poulet has a post on Bertie getting a Tax exemption for his book. And the usual commentary as you would expect, about how could [...]
I believe the introduced the cap on artists’ tax about 2 years ago. Now the limit is 200,000. Still quite high, but much better than the unlimited situation before.
Bertie Ahern and the artists’ tax exemption – The Story // Jan 7, 2010 at 17:03
[...] to our RSS feed or for updates via email.Bono, Enya, Elvis Costello, Maeve Binchey, Louis Walsh and now Bertie Ahern . Who’da [...]
Something else: the cover photograph on the buke.
Is Bertie normally tie-less? What is this mode of (un)dress saying? I’m a cool guy who doesn’t have to wear a tie any more? I’m a regular Dub who wouldn’t wear a tie unless he had to? I’m a rich geezer now so I’ll dress as I damn well like?
Just wondering. I don’t wear a tie myself, but Bertie looks odd in this particular photo without one.
Maybe he’s getting used to this style – they don’t allow prisoners to wear ties in jail as far as I know.
As a write actor and film maker who has struggled greatly to survive, I am appalled that this piece of shit , yes piece of shit , called Ahern can suddenly saddle up beside real artists and claim another piece of a pie that is NOT his to take. He is a SCAM artist not a creative one, they abuse everything that is given to people with less. I will buy a copy of his book to use as toilet paper .
In fairness, it’s not as if he’d bother paying the taxes on it even if he hadn’t been declared exempt…
As for his memoirs being declared a valuable literary artefact, well the jokes just write themselves..
Maman Poulet » Bertie Earners are up 25% // Apr 20, 2010 at 00:36
[...] motion calling for the introduction of a new system for awarding tax relief on books. Mr. Ahern was awarded a tax exemption for his autobiography earlier this year. One of the members proposing the award, Antony Cronin stated that many of the [...]