Writers Patricia Scanlan and Sheila O'Flanagan have urged the Government not to withdraw or restrict the scheme that exempts artists and writers from tax on their earnings.
The two writers were the most prominent figures from the artistic scene to make submissions on the review of tax exemptions that is being conducted by Finance Minister Brian Cowen.
Ms Scanlan, the first among the recent wave of Irish popular fiction writers to emerge on the best-seller lists, said that writing "would hardly be worth the effort" were it not for the exemption.
"I'm considered a very successful author and am considered to have done well, but people have made hundreds of thousands of pounds out of my success and my financial rewards are a very small fraction of what they make," she wrote.
"Please stand up for us, Minister. We're portrayed as greedy spongers who should be outed and the print media, in all my years of interviews, have never explained that an advance is a loan to be repaid. Greedy spongers we are not."
Ms O'Flanagan, who writes a weekly column in The Irish Times, said that any move to scrap the writers' exemption would bring only limited additional income to the Exchequer and "alienate" people for whom it has been a benefit.
"This exemption was not brought in to help 'struggling' artists. It was brought in to encourage the arts," she wrote.
"At the very least, a lead-in period of three to five years should be put in place to enable artists and writers to plan their tax affairs for the future, as many will have commitments and outgoings based on a level of income which would be unrealistic in a different taxation environment."
Ms O'Flanagan said that, for very high earners who already have expert tax advice, "the choice will be to relocate as other high-income individuals and entrepreneurs have done before".
Mr Michael O'Brien of the O'Brien Press said that many writers would leave the State if the scheme was abolished and that it would be "increasingly difficult to find new Irish authors, particularly in the less commercial areas of children's fiction, fantasy, poetry and biography".
Other submissions were received from children's writer Marita Conlon-McKenna, the Illustrators Guild of Ireland and the Irish Playwriters and Screenwriters Guild.
