<
https://theconversation.com/if-you-win-most-literary-prizes-you-pay-tax-if-you-win-the-block-you-dont-how-is-this-fair-277250>
"When Goorie and Koori poet Evelyn Araluen won last week’s $100,000 Victorian
Prize for Literature, along with the $25,000 Indigenous Writing prize, she
called on the Australian government to change the way it taxes arts prizes.
Araluen won for her poetry collection,
The Rot, described by the judges as “a
work of remarkable poetic intelligence; formally bold, emotionally exacting and
politically uncompromising.” Out of her $125,000 prize money, Araluen, who now
works as an academic, may pay more than $40,000 in tax.
In Australia, while the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are tax-free, others,
such as the Stella Prize and the state-based awards, are not. While
acknowledging the importance of our tax system, Araluen spoke of how other
countries have “really intelligent taxation laws” that take into account
artists’ fluctuating incomes.
Araluen echoes the calls of organisations including the National Association
for Visual Arts and the Australian Society of Authors, which have long
campaigned for tax-free art prizes. Artists who win The Archibald Prize, for
instance, also pay tax, as do winners of the David Williamson Playwright Prize,
the Australian Music Prize and many others.
Indeed over a decade ago, writer David Marr memorably pointed out that you
wouldn’t pay tax on a win on the races at Randwick but you would if you won the
Miles Franklin Literary Award. The former is true if you win TV renovation show
The Block or punt on the footy.
Authors pay tax on most prizes because the money they receive counts as income
for their work. The Australian Taxation Office determines that a gift or prize
is generally regarded as a personal windfall gain and not ordinary income. This
is “unless the taxpayer has received the prize or gift because of, in respect
of, or in relation to any income-producing activity of the taxpayer”.
A “windfall gain” is something like lotto, something that has no relationship
to your paid work.
And yet the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, along with the Prime Minister’s
Prize for Australian History, has been tax-free since these awards were
introduced in 2008. In 2022, Macquarie University calculated the average
author’s annual income (derived from their writing) was $18,200. Australian
authors are earning very little for their work – tax-free prizes across the
board would help buy them time to write more books."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
