I guess I'm just a begrudger. Y'know "Why should I have to pay tax when they don't?" Living near the most affluent region in Dublin and seeing Bono and co. floating about doesn't help much eaither, I don't think.

If they had that here -- I think I might still be painting.

I don't expect that most people who take advantage of that tax break are Bono rich.

Well yeah, but why couldn't they just pay tax is their earning bracket like the rest of us? I rarely earn enough to pay tax, so I don't. When I do, I do, though it's not very much. If I earned more, I'd pay more. I don't see why it should be any different for artists, call me a philistine if you will.

I think in America it is close to impossible to earn so little that you don't pay tax. Mostly, you need to have children or own a home to get any discounts. The only year I was "exempt" I was 15 and earned $300. The next year I earned about $3,000, and paid tax on it.

Well yeah, it's pretty hard in Ireland too. I usually don't pay tax because I only work the months I'm not in college. And even then I pay social insurance, though again, that's not very much.

I guess, mainly to me it suggests that the government wishes to encourage the arts . . . but I imagine what it actually wants is for people who are already successful as artists to stay in Ireland and you know add to the economy by buying goods and services and encouraging tourists.

IAmNotReallyASpring, when you say, "You can choose your nationality" what does that mean? Do you get to enroll as a citizen under the term of your choice, or are you talking about how people identify themselves?

One can have exclusively Irish citizenship while having been born in the North. I don't know what the procedures for obtaining it are and I don't know where certain boundaries are drawn (though I would think many of those boundaries are still undefined). Like, I can remember people up north inquiring to know if they could draw the Irish dole (They couldn't). Since the foundation of the North, the nationalist/Catholic community has been identifying itself as Irish, so that's not new, and there was also (and still are) articles in the Irish constitution that gave citizenship to some people not born in the Republic.

Well yeah, but why couldn't they just pay tax is their earning bracket like the rest of us?

The reasoning behind it is that artists aren't on a fixed incomes and are at a disadvantage because of that. When you're getting paid, say, book to book, securing a mortgage is a problem. Also, let's say you sell your novel for 50 grand and you were taxed in the top bracket, by the time you sell your next book, maybe two years later, you're poor again.

I guess, mainly to me it suggests that the government wishes to encourage the arts . . .but I imagine what it actually wants is for people who are already successful as artists to stay in Ireland and you know add to the economy by buying goods and services and encouraging tourists.

I think it was introduced as a genuine way of supporting the arts. The man responsible for it, Charlie Hughey, fancied himself as bit of a Renaissance man and seemed to want to grant artists an opportunity to make a decent living. Also, I've found that the Irish are quite proud of the arts, especially the literary tradition, and are inclined to foot the struggling artist's bill if they're seen to be enriching the culture. But maybe that isn't true.

and in the course of normal research

Apparently one of the early new season episodes of Smallville is called " Sneeze ".

Hee. Speculation is that Clark is developing the super-breath or whatever it's called.

Also - Greg Grunberg and Stanley Tucci are on Monk tonight!!

Speculation

Pray it's not Smallville doing Man of Steel; Woman of Kleenex.