Business And Leadership, Ireland's Business News Service

It is sometimes difficult to get a sense of the lengths some people will go to assist their country until their country strapped to a ventilator surrounded by a bevy of consultants. Cometh the hour, cometh Fintan O’Toole, with a patriotic initiative which, if it takes off, could not only save our economy, but expand that economy to include a new financial advisory niche – how to pay more tax than you need to.

The idea is simple. If you are reasonably well off and feel that you are not being levied a sufficient amount in taxes, you offer to pay a little more. If you feel a relief is unfair, you don’t accept it. You may be less well off at the end of the year but the sense of well-being, patriotism and moral superiority which ensues renders the sacrifice worthwhile. The return is even greater if, instead of just telling your left hand what you are doing, you give it a printing press and ask it to get the word out.  

So it was that we learned in his column in the Irish Times that Mr O’Toole, the author of Ship of Fools, a new book on Irish politics, is to pay tax on the earnings in spite of the artists’ exemption tax which allows him to legally avoid payment.

Mr O’Toole has for over 20 years been one of the most prolific, articulate and passionate columnists to grace an Irish newspaper page. Although he has the scope to deal with almost any topic, he likes to champion the rights of the disadvantaged while holding the powerful up to scrutiny.

The artists’ tax exemption as currently applied is an unfair measure never meant to enrich the bank balances of retired taoisigh. It needs reform and there are proposals in place, such as allowing discretion by a body such the Arts Council, which could neatly bring fairness to the initiative.

Mr O’Toole could have used his recent column to discuss the relative merits of alternatives to the current scheme. He could have put forward a few of his own. Instead he forwarded the proposition that when confronted with a state which is giving us too much money we should insist on giving some of it back.

When public figures, especially ones who are part of the political and media establishment, tell us they are giving up money, publicity or power, it is not unreasonable to react with suspicion.

The most recent example to come to mind is Enda Kenny and nine of his colleagues, who last year took a voluntary pay cut. Last week, they took a voluntary pay rise to offset the cut. “It was a personal decision to take on, it will be a personal decision to give it up,” was how Fine Gael explained the U-turn. Which puts paid to my unfounded scepticism. You see, some thought it was a public decision - made in public, communicated in public and used to gain the political support of the public.

So if we have Enda and the boys wrong, maybe one should not be too quick to judge Mr O’Toole. Maybe it is wrong to lump him with the Sadducees and Pharisees at the front of the church. Aside from the public adjustments made to his tax bill there is no reason to believe that Mr O’Toole does not made a wide variety of private upward adjustments to his tax bill which are simply not worthy of comment.

There is a serious and significant point to this argument and it comes up every time somebody talks about the rich using tax reliefs to avoid paying their share. Unless we ourselves engage in the minority religious practice of voluntarily paying extra tax we should refrain from proselytising to others just because they happen to be better off.

In the meantime, all voluntary contributions to the Exchequer are, of course, more than welcome.

Tom McEnaney is associate editor at Business & Leadership.To receive Tom's weekly opinion column free to your inbox, subscribe to The Business Week ezine.