Former Irish PM Bertie Ahern gets (BS) artist tax break
Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 10:58 AM
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Determined to get every penny he can for his tell-nothing autobiography, the former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern applied to the Irish Republic's Tax Commission for a tax-break usually reserved for artists. And he got it.The Artist's Tax Exemption Scheme was originally designed to assist struggling artists maintain a little more of their low incomes in order that the arts can thrive in Ireland. With Ahern's successful application, we are assured the perpetuity of the basest form of literature: the politician's memoir.
Published by Random House's Cornerstone with a payment to the Taoiseach of over €400,000, Bertie Ahern: The Autobiography is being beat on the Irish book sales charts--aptly--by Shane Ross's The Bankers: How the Banks Brought Ireland to Its Knees.
According to the Irish Revenue Commission's guidelines: "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."
Save deeming his I-did-no-wrong book of excuses as being the work of a high bullsh*t artist, Ahern has no legitimate claim to being a producer of arts.
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vincentruane | Jan 22, 2010, 05:39 PM EST
This is a great idea for writers and artists and who knows what creative masterpieces that it could eventually encourage. Bertie is perfectly entitled to apply for this tax exemption scheme and who knows their may be some masterpieces brewing in his mind.
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