TAX FOR ARTISTS IN IRELAND
​

Tax Resources

Visual Artists Ireland also produce an excellent set of guidelines for artists about business and tax in the form of  The Manual: A Survival Guide for Visual Artists.
​
​This includes sections on:

• Tax and Self-Employment  - this provides comprehensive advice on registration as an artist, tax payable and what records need to be maintained.
• VAT and Artists
• Artists Tax Exemption - covers the history of the scheme and attacks on it.
  

REFERENCE:

• Revenue | Irish Tax & Customs - Home page of the Revenue Commissioners
• Self assessment and Self Employment | Revenue
• Guide to self-assessment
• Filing your tax return
• Mandatory e-filing
  

Other resources

• Revenue Commissioners | Wikipedia - The Revenue Commissioners (Irish: Na Coimisinéirí Ioncaim), usually referred to simply as Revenue, is the Irish Government agency responsible for customs, excise, taxation and related matters.
• Artist's exemption from income tax | Citizen's Information
  

---

The Artists Exemption

Claimants for Artists’ Exemption must be resident or ordinarily resident and domiciled, in an EU Member State or in an EEA State, and not resident elsewhere. 

Artists in Ireland can be exempt from income tax in certain circumstances relating to the nature of the artwork and the type of payment received

Links to the relevant pages for artists living and working in Ireland

• Citizen's Information - Artists' exemption from income tax - an accessible explanation of the official guidelines

Artists' Exemption Information and Guidelines | ​Irish Tax & Customs
This explains how artists achieve exemption from income tax.
These are the Artists Exemption Guidelines (PDF, 26KB) April 2016

1. Overview
   
2. How to get a determination
3. Advance opinion for non-residents
4. Advance royalties
5. Grants, awards or prizes
6. Right of appeal
7. PRSI, VAT, USC and the High Earners' Restriction
8. Individuals who received a favourable determination

Guidelines have been drawn up by the Arts Council and by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. We use these to determine whether a work is original and creative, and whether it is generally recognised as having cultural or artistic merit. We also sometimes consult with other bodies such as The Arts Council in reaching decisions in relation to Artists’ Exemption. 

Section 195 Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA 1997) empowers the Revenue Commissioners to make a determination that certain artistic works are original and creative works generally recognised as having cultural or artistic merit.
​
For 2015 and subsequent years the first €50,000 per annum of profits or gains earned by writers, composers, visual artists and sculptors from the sale of their work is exempt from income tax in Ireland in certain circumstances. For the years 2011 to 2014 the maximum amount which was exempt was €40,000.

Accountants specialising in Artists's Tax Exemptions

These are a listing of those who state they specialise. They are NOT recommendations and are given without any liability.

• Artists Tax Exemption - McCarthy Accountants
• Artist Exemption - O'Mahony Donnelly

---

HOME

GO TO:

• Art Business Information Index
• Starting Out - Tips
• ​The Best Art Business Books
• Money & Tax
• Tax for Artists
  

DISCLAIMER

• I'm not a professionally qualified expert in this area.
• However everybody has to start somewhere and the aim of this website is to get you thinking about the right questions to think about and ask if and when you need to get professional advice.
• The links contained on this website are those which could be found by anybody doing extensive research on the Internet. This is your shortcut to the hours it took me to put this site together!