Mathews calls for tax breaks

**BohDiddley** · 15/09/2006, 10:46 AM

Garry Doyle in the Mirror has an interesting interview with Alan Mathews calling for tax breaks for clubs, Norwegian-style. Summarised here

**passerrby** · 15/09/2006, 11:10 AM

there will be no tax breaks until all clubs are compliant I guess

**Sniffer** · 15/09/2006, 12:04 PM

Particularly enjoyed quote from anonymous eircom League club chairman - 'Without being too unkind, Irish soccer has not attracted the brightest brains in the country over the last few years.

Who is he talking about?

**Dodge** · 15/09/2006, 12:14 PM

Idiot. he's advocating paying the players more!?! Only pay what you can afford (including tax) and then build from there.

**Leeza** · 15/09/2006, 12:17 PM

There's no reason why we can't get tax breaks. If the superrich (Like U2) can get tax breaks for plying their artistic trade why shouldn't football clubs get taxbreaks for their contribution to irish culture?

Madness.

**Mr A** · 15/09/2006, 12:31 PM

If clubs get their act together and pay their tax on time and in full, then they may be able to make the case for tax breaks more forcefully. We've had 3 winding up orders by the revenue against 2 of the league's most prominent clubs this year so far so this probably isn't the time to do that.

As things stand tax breaks would probably just mean the clubs blow even more money on the same players. Better for the moment to direct money towards capital expenditure I think, as the clubs will just blow any cash they receive that'll enable them to increase their budgets. Having said that, the funding coming into the game is still woefully inadequate.

Better to start with making sure every players gets a payslip and all other relevant tax documents and making sure all these are accurate.

**Poor Student** · 15/09/2006, 12:40 PM

"Surely some sort of incentive could be made available for club and players to get a tax break if, for example, they combined their football career with an education course,” he said."

I could have sworn that UCD don't have to pay PRSI on the wages of the scholarship students.

**BohDiddley** · 15/09/2006, 12:56 PM

BFC has a link-up starting with DCU.

**BohDiddley** · 15/09/2006, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by Sniffer

Particularly enjoyed quote from anonymous eircom League club chairman - 'Without being too unkind, Irish soccer has not attracted the brightest brains in the country over the last few years.

Who is he talking about?

TBH, thought that petty and utterly counter-productive -- feeding into the usual excuse-making for starving football. Whoever made that comment isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer himself.

**John83** · 15/09/2006, 2:13 PM

Originally Posted by Poor Student

"Surely some sort of incentive could be made available for club and players to get a tax break if, for example, they combined their football career with an education course,” he said."

I could have sworn that UCD don't have to pay PRSI on the wages of the scholarship students.

That's right. It's the Scholarship Exemption, Section 193, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997. I'm exempt from tax on the same grounds.

**A face** · 15/09/2006, 4:27 PM

Originally Posted by BohDiddley

BFC has a link-up starting with DCU.

When i read that first i thought it was BSC, i had to rub my eyes and pinch myself to make sure i wasn't dreaming

**passerrby** · 15/09/2006, 6:12 PM

Originally Posted by Leeza

There's no reason why we can't get tax breaks. If the superrich (Like U2) can get tax breaks for plying their artistic trade why shouldn't football clubs get taxbreaks for their contribution to irish culture?

Madness.

there is a very good reason why the revenue will not give us any breaks because we have been behaving like arsholes with them in the past.