this really is the least of the schemes in terms of the damage it does. only the people who are actually contributing something cultural get the benefeit, unlike most of the other schemes – especially the film industry’s s481 – in which anyone can invest their income in order to avoid tax.

Bellefire? You might want to rethink that one fmk. I personally find it to be an offence to culture that acts such as this (and Westlife, Ronan Keating and my least-favourite-”person”-du-jour, who I’m not going to keep naming everywhere) are actually *rewarded* for forcing their pathetic excuse for art on us all.

Surely inter-county GAA players contribute more to Irish culture than these plonkers, and they still haven’t been given *any* form of tax breaks.

/me rereads my comment and reaches for the tags.

now of course, if you want to get into an argument over what has cultural value and what hasn’t, and have the government define cultural for us, and say what is and isn’t allowed, well i think that could be an interesting form of government to try, for a while. as it is, the sort of society we have, we get to choose for ourselves, with our wallets.

there are tax exemptions for sports people too, some of which are even more offensive than the artists’ exemption scheme in the way they allow the wealthy to avoid paying income tax. bujt few sports people have the stature or as soft a target as bono and the boys in u2.

as for inter-county gaa folk – they, dear boy, are amatures, as the gaa constantly points out, and so shouldn’t be making any money from the game.

>> the consumer is still king
You could also argue that the marketers are king. That that McFadden plonker for example. Last Sunday he was in the paper (IoS) because he went to see his sister in a play. This morning, he’s in the Indo because he was on MTV yesterday. Co-incidentally, his new single was mentioned both times. Similar stuff with Westlife. Their singles get saturation airplay before they ever hit the shops. Why not give their PR companies tax breaks too? (OK – I’m being needlessy inflammatory. I’ll stop now ).

For the GAA peeps, I realise they’re amateur but that’s all the more reason that they should be given some tax credit for their regular income in recognition of what they do. IMO anyway.

I totally agree with the GAA suggestion, they contribute so much to the Country that I believe the majority of the population would rather grant them some tax credit than see Cecilia not have to bother with her tax returns!!

p.s ever thought how messed up it is that her name is closly linked with Daddy’s long term mistress!!!