Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 238: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of tax forgone to the Exchequer due to the tax relief afforded to creative artists; the number of persons who availed of this exemption; and the amount of relief granted to each person. [30205/04]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent relevant information available on the exemption of certain earnings of writers, composers and artists relates to the short income tax year 2001, in respect of which some 1,323 claims for exemption were allowed at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of €23.5 million. It should be noted that as PAYE taxpayers were charged to tax on their earnings in the period from 6 April to 31 December 2001 and self-employed taxpayers were assessed to tax for the short year on 74% of the profits earned in a 12-month accounting period, data provided may not be directly comparable with those of earlier or later years. However, the Revenue Commissioners estimated that the full year cost to the Exchequer of the artists relief for the tax year 2000-01 was €36.8 million.

The specific information requested by the Deputy on relief granted to each person is not readily available. However, a breakdown of the number of claimants by reference to ranges of the income which was tax exempted is set out in the following table. A married couple who has elected or has been deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit.

Numbers of persons claiming the artists exemption and the income subject to the exemption in the short tax year 2001: