Artists’ Exemption is where the income you earn from your artistic endeavours may be exempt from Income Tax. An artist must apply for artists’ exemption and will receive a determination from Revenue if they are successful.
If a determination is given, the artist is deemed to have Artists’ Exemption from the year in which the claim is made. Income up to a maximum of €50,000 from those works is exempt from Income Tax. Please note that PRSI and USC are still payable. VAT and High Earner’s Restriction may also apply too. You must be resident, or ordinarily resident and domiciled in the State to apply.
Original, creative with either cultural or artistic merit
Revenue will need to make a determination on whether artistic works are original, creative and have either cultural merit or artistic merit.
The work must be creative and original work in one of the following categories:
- Books or other forms of writing
- Plays
- Musical compositions
- Paintings or other similar pictures
- Sculptures
Revenue use guidelines were drawn up by the Arts Council and by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Creative and original means it must be a unique work of creative quality brought into existence by the creator’s imagination. Cultural merit means the form and/or content of the work significantly enhances one or more aspects of national or international culture. Artistic merit means the form and/or content enhances to a significant degree the work in the relevant category.
How to get a determination of Artists’ Exemption
In order to get a determination, you must apply to Revenue by sending in the following:
- An Artists’ Exemption claim form found here
- Samples of work – details are found on the claim form and are dependent on the category
- Supporting documentation in the form of testimonials
Payments to artists that are exempt from income tax
The following payments are exempt from income tax from when they are made to an artist who has received an Artists’ Exemption:
- Arts Council bursaries
- Cnuas payments made under the Aosdana Scheme
- Artists’ Resale Right Royalties
- Payments from the sale of works that are considered eligible under the Artists Exemption scheme
Criteria for non-fiction works to receive Artists’ Exemption
There are additional conditions in place for a non-fiction piece of work to be regarded as creative, original and with cultural or artistic merit. The criteria are as follows:
(a) Revenue have the opinion that the non-fiction is a work in one of the following categories;
(i) arts criticism,
(ii) arts history,
(iii) arts subject work, being a work the subject matter of which is,
or is any combination of, visual arts, theatre, literature, music,
dance, opera, film, circus or architecture,
(iv) artists’ diaries,
(v) belles-lettres essays,
(vi) literary translation,
(vii) literary criticism,
(viii) literary history,
(ix) literary diaries,
(b) That is the work is either (i) a biography or (ii) an autobiography, which incorporates the author’s unique insight into the subject and is regarded as pioneering work by showing it in a new light
(c) That the work is a work related to the functions of the Heritage Council and which incorporates the author’s unique insight into the subject and is regarded as pioneering work by showing it in a new light
(d)The work relates to archives over 30 years old relating to Ireland and Irish people and which incorporates the author’s unique insight into the subject and is regarded as pioneering work by showing it in a new light
(e) Any combination of the above
You can find further details on Artists’ Exemption here.
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