{"id":118343,"date":"2025-10-13T01:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T01:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118343\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T01:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T01:03:13","slug":"miriam-ocallaghan-waives-right-to-e50000-artists-tax-exemption-on-her-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/118343\/","title":{"rendered":"Miriam O\u2019Callaghan waives right to \u20ac50,000 artist\u2019s tax exemption on her memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news follows reports that Leo Varadkar, who resigned as taoiseach last year, was granted the artists\u2019 exemption tax break for his own memoir, Speaking My Mind, published last month.<\/p>\n

When contacted this weekend, Ms O\u2019Callaghan said she was not seeking the exemption for her memoir Miriam: Life, Work, Everything.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, a spokesperson for the broadcaster also said: \u201cMiriam made the decision not to apply for the tax exemption for her memoir from the outset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal for her memoir is rumoured to be worth six figures. It is due to be published by Penguin on October 30.<\/p>\n

\"Miriam<\/p>\n

Miriam O’Callaghan in 2024. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Sunday, October 12 <\/p>\n

The book will cover both personal issues and Ms O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s career, which included time spent at the BBC and ITV, as well as over 30 years at RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2022, there were 3,840 recipients of the tax break, costing the State \u20ac15.1m in tax forgone<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The artists\u2019 exemption scheme applies to works that are \u201coriginal and creative\u201d and \u201cgenerally recognised as having cultural or artistic merit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leo Varadkar defended his inclusion in the artist\u2019s scheme by saying: \u201cI submitted the book to the Revenue Commissioners and filled in the necessary forms. It qualified as other autobiographies have.<\/p>\n

“Tax laws should apply to former politicians as they would to any private citizen, and it\u2019s right that they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exemption used to be unlimited. As a member of government in 2013, I voted to limit it to a maximum of \u20ac50,000. USC and PRSI is not exempted. C\u2019est la vie!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sales of the memoir are estimated at about 10,000 copies.<\/p>\n

Mr Varadkar follows several politicians who have been granted the relief over the years. They include former taoiseach Bertie Ahern for his 2009 autobiography, as well as former ministers Alan Shatter and Ruairi Quinn.<\/p>\n

Others granted the tax relief include jockey-turned-children\u2019s author Rachael Blackmore for her book Granny National.<\/p>\n

In 2022, there were 3,840 recipients of the tax break, costing the State \u20ac15.1m in tax forgone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news follows reports that Leo Varadkar, who resigned as taoiseach last year, was granted the artists\u2019 exemption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[15526,18,117,19,17,34886,69608,1900,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-118343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bertie-ahern","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-leo-varadkar","14":"tag-miriam-ocallaghan","15":"tag-revenue-commissioners","16":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}