Tax Bono 'to help the poor'

national | miscellaneous | other press Friday December 02, 2005 17:03 by Melcan

Is U2 are going start paying their fair share of taxes or not?

Cap relief for artists at €20,000-a-year, urges anti-poverty champion

HIGH-earning artists such as Bono, Enya, the Corrs and Westlife should be forced to pay tax to help bridge the gap between the rich and poor in our society, it was claimed yesterday.

Tax Bono 'to help the poor'

Cap relief for artists at €20,000-a-year, urges anti-poverty champion

HIGH-earning artists such as Bono, Enya, the Corrs and Westlife should be forced to pay tax to help bridge the gap between the rich and poor in our society, it was claimed yesterday.

The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) yesterday said a cap on the artists tax exemption scheme should be put in place which would effectively force big names such as Riverdance impressario Bill Whelan and Samantha Mumba among others out of the scheme.

At present, artists, musicians and writers do not pay income tax on the sale of their creative works in the scheme which is currently under review.

Yesterday, the Joint Oireachtas committee on Finance heard the scheme was benefiting a small number to a large extent.

"In reality, the distribution of this relief is such that a number of individuals are gaining large tax-free incomes while others are benefiting at a much smaller level," said Fr Sean Healy, the head of CORI's Justice Commission.

"We believe that a cap on this relief should be set at €20,000 per annum with artists paying tax on all income above this figure."

Fr Healy, an outspoken advocate for the poor, was invited to address Fianna Fail's 'think-in' at Inchydoney in September 2004 to change the public perception that the party is uncaring and indifferent to issues of social justice. A policy in which "those who have more, pay more, while those who have less, pay less" should be put in place, said Fr Healy.

"Overall the distribution of the tax relief is heavily skewed towards the top 40pc of households, who receive almost 89pc of the value of this scheme," he told the committee.

Fr Healy referred to figures from the Revenue Commissioners which showed that in 2001, 41 people who earned over €500,000, used tax relief schemes to reduce their income tax liability to zero.

"The CORI Justice Commission believes that there is something profoundly unfair about a tax system in which some millionaires pay no tax while employees who are on the minimum wage must pay tax," Fr Healy said.

Procedures should be adopted where tax reliefs would be reviewed on the basis of the economic and social benefits they provide, he declared.

Shane Hickey