There is a happy land . . .
TAXATION RICHARD LYNN
Richard Lynn is Professor of Psychology at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.
Dublin—A yawning tax loophole for writers and artists has just opened up in Eire as a result of this year's Budget. Henceforth all incomes from the arts-will be entirely tax free for anyone residing in the Republic of Ireland. The loophole applies to writing, painting, sculpture and music and the implications are interesting, to say the least. It seems that Mr Henry Moore, whose earnings are reputed to be around a quarter of a million a year but who is said to receive only about LI0,000 after tax, will now be able to keep the lot if only he is willing to move to Ireland. Will the traditional one-way traffic from Dublin to Liverpool now be reversed? For those in the class of Mr Henry Moore it must be a tempt- ing thought.
Before everyone rushes to buy a ticket one detail had better be explained. It seems that only earnings from works of cultural merit will be exempt from tax. A commission is to be established to decide who comes within the pale. This promises to be a paradise for lawyers and critics. Even if you can't get in yourself there should be some fees to be picked up helping others. Remember that some of the artists will be playing for very high stakes. What would it be worth to the Beatles? A million a year? That's worth briefing the best counsel in Dublin for.
All this promises to provide good sport. Another entertaining side-effect will be how the new culture commission ges on with the cen- sors. Ireland has a strong censorship with a tradition of banning a good many'wri.ers nor- mally considered culturally distinguished, such as James Joyce and Graham Creene. This censorious atmosphere has dr Ircssed some Irish writers so much that they nave le: the country, one of the most recent to do so being Miss Edna O'Brien. Will being banned auto- matically bar a writer from tax exemption? This will put the authorities on a tricky spot. They will look rather silly if they piss, say, Miss O'Brien as a writer of cultural de- serving tax exemption but at the same time ban her as a corrupting influence. On the o'er hand, if they don't accept writers like Graham Greene and Miss O'Brien as having cu'Aural merit they would become the laughing stacks of the world. It looks as if the only solution will be to relax the censorship.
For poor Mr Jenkins the new rule could hardly have come at a worse time. In his April Budget he delighted his colleagues by clobber- ing those mercenary writers and artists who have been trying to preserve some fraction of their earnings through the modest loophole afforded by Constellation Investments and simi- lar companies. Under these arrangements they were able to keep about a third of their • earn- ings. To socialists this seemed monstrous,greed and an abuse which had to be stopped: Mr Jenkins has no doubt gained some kudos in the eyes of his colleagues by plugging the gap.
Yet however satisfying it may be to thwart the gifted and energetic it does have the Snag that they tend simply to leave the country. Among those who have done so, some who immediately spring to mind are NoerCoward, Northcote Parkinson, Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess. No 'doubt there are .others and there will be many more after the last Budget.
Where will the forthcoming exodus from Britain go? Some, like Professor Parkinson, have opted for the Channel Islands. There is no surtax, income tax is only four shillings, and you can get to London in an hour. But why pay four shillings in the pound in Guernsey when you can live in civilised surroundings in Dublin and pay nothing? Others, hke Mr D. Morris and Mr A. Burgess, prefer Malta. True, income tax is only sixpence and you do have the sun. But one is apt to have the enervating feeling of being perpetually on holiday, the island is a bit remote and they say the com- pany there leaves something to be desired.
No, for those who want the feeling of living in England without actually living there, the place is surely Ireland. In Dublin's St Stephen's Green you might be in Kensington Gardens. Reading the papers in a Dublin club you could be in St James's. Or if you prefer the country and like Scotland you might just as well be in Kerry. The scenery is indistinguishable from the more attractive parts of England, the archi- tecture is good English architecture and even the letter-boxes are English except that they are painted green instead of red, and you soon get used to that.
Speaking for myself, I must say I think the idea of Ireland as an artists' and writers' tax haven is a masterstroke. To be frank. wouldn't care to justify it philosophically, since I am not too sure why someone who makes his living entertaining his fellow men should be regarded as more meritorious than one who supplies them with beef or shoes. Still, I think it's an excellent scheme. If the British drive their most able creative people abroad, I don't see why Ireland shouldn't have them.
Who's coming? All those shareholders in Constellation hit by the last Budget should be
thinking about it for a start. Then there should be some transfers from those who have already fled to various havens. What about all the Labour MPS who are going to become redun- dant within the next two years? Most of them are scribblers of one sort or another. When Mr Jenkins returns to authorship he might even be looking for a haven himself. He could certainly do a lot worse than Ireland.
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