Self-Employment

When starting out as an artist you do not have to register anywhere until you start earning an income from your practice in Ireland. Generating an income from your work as an artist (including fees, funding and selling work) will be treated the same as any other self generated, non-PAYE income.

If you receive payments under €5,000, use myAccount to declare this income on your Income Tax Return. If you receive payments over €5,000 a year, you will need to register for self-assessment. Once you register, file your tax return form on Revenue Online Services (ROS). 

As a self-employed person you pay income tax under the self-assessment system, once a year. Self-assessment means that you are responsible for making your own assessment of tax due. You will need to file an annual tax return – called the Form 11, and declare all of your income.

Being self-employed means you are carrying on your own business rather than working for an employer. With this there are many advantages and disadvantages.

From a financial view point the primary advantage of being self-employed is that you are given greater flexibility in the expenses you can claim for tax purposes. Costs allowable under the PAYE system (where you are employed by another person or company) are very limited in comparison.

As a self-employed artist you may qualify for the Artists Tax Exemption. The artists tax exemption is only available (and useful) to the self-employed – so you must be registered as self-employed to avail of this tax break. 

You can be in employment (earning PAYE income) while also being self-employed for your other work, which qualifies for the Artist Tax Exemption. Note that you only receive the Artists Tax Exemption on your self-employed income – that is your creative earnings. If you have a PAYE position that involves doing creative work that would otherwise qualify for artist exemption it will fail to do so on the grounds that it is a PAYE position. A PAYE salary is liable to income tax. Your self-employed creative work will qualify for the Artists Tax Exemption. Artists Tax Exemption only applies to income generated by the artworks – eg sale of work, funding to create work, artist fee to show works, contract for commission of work. Artist Tax Exemption does not apply to income not related to artworks – eg fees for delivering workshops, artists talks, collaboration. 

As a self-employed taxpayer you may still be entitled to some form of unemployment benefit from the Department of Social Protection, and you do not need to de-register as self-employed in order to claim such benefits.

There are two separate unemployment benefits available, Jobseekers Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance. In addition to regular Jobseekers Allowance, there is also a Jobseekers Allowance for Professional Artists scheme available. Jobseekers Allowance for Professional Artists is for self employed artists only