Gaelic Games News round-upThe player awards scheme announced last week by the Government, GAA, Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and Irish Sports Council (ISC) are taxable, according to the Revenue Commissioners. However, in practice the awards are unlikely to result in tax being levied.

When contacted by The Irish Times a spokesperson for Revenue, Denis Harkin, had this to say about the scheme.

"Revenue do not, for reasons of confidentiality, comment on individual cases. Even with sight of the GPA 'agreement', Revenue may not, again for reasons of confidentiality, be in a position to comment on the tax treatment of any payment(s) made to individual players.

"In general terms, grants issued to athletes by the Sports Council, in line with other revenue type grants are taxable."

The issue of such liability arose in one of the stipulations listed as a schedule to last week's agreement. Condition number seven states: "Any tax liability that might arise from these schemes is the responsibility of the individual player."

This, however, is a standard provision in all ISC grant or award arrangements, according to chief executive John Treacy.

"There was nothing unusual about the condition," he said when contacted by The Irish Times. "It's part of our general guidelines. Effectively all athletes across the board are responsible for any issues that arise with the Revenue."

The condition is simply a mechanism that distances the ISC from any involvement in an individual's tax affairs. But the experience of athletes who have been part of these schemes suggests that footballers and hurlers will not be taxed on the awards, which will come into operation at the end of next year.

"It would be unusual to incur a tax liability on our awards or grants," according to Treacy, "in that athletes would normally be able to offset expenses incurred in pursuit of their disciplines against the amount received."

Given that the sort of individual awards authorised by the Sports Council would average a great deal more than the approximately €1,500 to €2,500 that is likely to be finalised as disbursements to players, it would be virtually impossible to run up a tax exposure.

One tax adviser approached for an opinion on the matter concurred with Treacy. "These amounts are intended not as an income but to defray costs. That's what the intention is and my understanding is that they would not be taxable. If the nature of the grant turned out to be payment for services that would be different but out-of-pocket expenses would easily offset such small amounts."

Last April the GAA and GPA agreed a schedule of items that any awards could legitimately be used to cover. These included special dietary requirements, vitamins, water or isotonic drinks, mobile phone costs and medical bills, not all of which are covered by county boards.

Furthermore the official GAA mileage level is, at 50 cent, well below the civil service rate of €1.24, a differential which would in itself eat up most of many players' awards money.

Meanwhile, a meeting is to be held near Toome, Co Antrim tomorrow evening to discuss attitudes to the awards scheme. One of the organisers, Mark Conway from Tyrone, who is well-known for his work for the GAA both within his county and national administration, spoke on RTÉ Radio One yesterday evening of his opposition.

"For a lot of us that would be the beginning of the end for the GAA," he said before calling for a wider debate. At least with the other big issues that we faced in the last few years - Rule 21 and the opening up of Croke Park - there was a discussion and we were instructed from on high to have that discussion. We debated those issues in my club and took a vote and that vote was fed on to Tyrone and up the line.

"Whether at the end of the day we agreed with that decision is neither here nor there. That was democracy at work. We're having this meeting to see just what the view is out there. The circles I move in, people are bitterly opposed to this."

The meeting takes place in The Elk complex, situated between Toome and Castledawson.

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