Oireachtas committee to discuss artists' tax exemption

The Oireachtas finance committee is due to discuss the tax exemption scheme for artists later today.

The Institute of Taxation and the Arts Council are both due to make submissions to the committee about the exemption, which is currently under review.

The scheme allows around 1,500 writers, musicians and performers to pay no tax on income they earn from creative works.

Eleven people involved in the scheme were able to avoid tax on earnings of more than €1m in 2002.

This has led to calls for the end of the exemption, but the Arts Council is arguing that the majority of beneficiaries earn very little from their artistic works.

It has also said that many multi-millionaire writers and performers could leave Ireland if they were not able to write off their taxes in such a way.