Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, jockey-turned-children’s author Rachael Blackmore, and environmentalist Éanna Ní Lamhna are among 261 writers, musicians and artists awarded tax exemptions from the Revenue Commissioners in the past six months.
Mr Varadkar, who resigned as taoiseach in April last year, was granted the tax break for his memoir, Speaking My Mind, which was launched last month.
The artists’ exemption scheme encourages creative endeavours and applies to works that are “original and creative” and “generally recognised as having cultural or artistic merit”.
Mr Varadkar follows several politicians who have been granted the relief over the years. They include former taoiseach Bertie Ahern for his 2009 autobiography, as well as former ministers Alan Shatter and Ruairi Quinn.
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Minister of State for Agriculture Michael Healy-Rae was also granted an exemption, when he was an opposition TD, for his book about life in rural Kerry. Former president Mary McAleese was granted the exemption in 2020 for her autobiography, Here’s the Story.
The relief is allowed on income tax but not Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) or Universal Social Charge (USC) on earnings of up to €50,000 for the year in which the claim is made. The scheme has been criticised in the past for allowing the tax relief to apply to political biographies.
Varadkar defended his inclusion: “I submitted the book to the Revenue Commissioners and filled in the necessary forms. It qualified as other autobiographies have. Tax laws should apply to former politicians as they would to any private citizen, and it’s right that they do.”
He added: “The exemption used to be unlimited. As a member of government in 2013, I voted to limit it to a maximum of €50,000. USC and PRSI is not exempted. C’est la vie!”
Last week, Mr Varadkar’s book sold 549 copies, sixth in The Irish Times best-sellers’ list for hardback non-fiction, based on Nielsen’s figures, which capture about 80 per cent of sales.
The former Dublin West TD, a guest lecturer at Harvard University, said “those figures are only for Ireland and don’t include audio or ebook”. The memoir is “still tipping away”, he said, estimating total sales at about 10,000.
Others granted the tax relief include jockey-turned-children’s author Rachael Blackmore for her book Granny National; environmentalist and Irish Times columnist Éanna Ní Lamhna for The Great Irish Biodiversity Book, debut novelist Roisín O’Donnell for Nesting and GP and author Claire Gleeson for Show Me Where It Hurts.
Also included are Irish Times columnist Lara Marlowe for her book, How Good It Is I Have No Fear Of Dying and journalist Martin Breheny for Pulse of the Nation.
Dublin composer Andrew Hamilton, singer-songwriter Hannah Kate Sheridan and painter and photographer Ishmael Claxton are also included.
In 2022, the most recent year for which full figures are available, there were 3,840 recipients of the tax break costing the State €15.1 million in tax foregone, an average of under €4,000.
