Quality | 2009.10.13
Tracey skips the levy | Jeremy Deller
There are plenty of good reasons for an artist to relocate, but avoiding tax shouldn\'t be one of them
It has almost become a tradition for people to threaten to leave the country if a particular party is elected or a particular law is imposed. So Tracey Emin \'s announcement that she is considering leaving the country to relocate permanently to France in protest at the introduction of a 50p tax rate on those earning over £150,000 is not really anything new. In an interview last weekend, she said: "I\'m simply not willing to pay tax at 50% … I reckon it would mean me paying about 65p in every pound with tax, national insurance and so on." But nothing sticks in the throat quite like the wealthy complaining about paying too much tax, so it is difficult to have sympathy.
Of late Britain has been a great place for the rich to work and play – and a great place to be a successful artist. The tax rate for high earners was far greater in the 60s, which didn\'t put the Beatles – our greatest cultural export of all time – off this country, despite George Harrison\'s complaints. I think we also equate tax exile status with creatives losing it. And the truth is that most artists like living in the UK.
There are certain things about living in Britain, and particularly about living in London, that can\'t be replicated anywhere else in the world. There\'s the ambiance, the friendships and contact networks you develop over time, the contradictions and tensions within British society that still make the UK a productive environment for artists – and no less for Emin, where the media has embraced her and her persona to make her very rich.
The whole idea of some kind of creative brain drain is a non-starter for artists, because people don\'t care where they live. It\'s what they do that matters. In one sense, artists are for hire, so they must go where the work is. Six hundred years ago, they would travel to wherever the cathedrals were being built to make their sculptures and frescoes. There is definitely a journeyman element to the job.
Of course, there are certain places which attract artists from around the world. Like London has been, Berlin is now one such place where there are thousands of artists living, at all levels of success and wealth, in part because of the cheap rents, and in part because the quality of life and culture is so good. And once a critical mass has been reached, everyone gravitates there anyway.
I\'m not convinced that France is such a place, though. It\'s one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world, and it\'s very hard to get a business started there. It\'s also hardly the first country you\'d imagine has a very low tax regime.
People who complain about taxes are usually making lots of money – and in any case, the 50p rate does not come into force until April, which gives them time to work out how to avoid paying it. It has always been easier to take money off the poor than off the rich, and the super-rich have enjoyed a very lax regime in Britain for some time.
Perhaps more people will follow suit and threaten to leave the country. But I doubt it will make more people vote for the Conservatives. In fact, it might encourage people to vote Labour – who knows? The fact is that life goes on, and most people have enough of their own problems to deal with.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/tracey-emin-tax-britain
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