Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

431 Interpretative provisions relating to insurance companies

(1) This section has effect for the interpretation of this Chapter.

(2) Unless the context otherwise requires—

• “annuity business” means the business of granting annuities on human life;

• “general annuity business” means any annuity business which is not pension business, and “pension business” shall be construed in accordance with subsections (3) and (4) below;

• “annuity fund” means, where an annuity fund is not kept separately from the life assurance fund of an insurance company, such part of the life assurance fund as represents the liability of the company under its annuity contracts, as stated in its periodical returns;

• “insurance company” means a company to which Part II of the [1982 c. 50.] Insurance Companies Act 1982 applies;

• “life assurance business” includes annuity business;

• “offshore income gain” has the same meaning as in Chapter V of Part XVII;

• “overseas life insurance company” means an insurance company having its head office outside the United Kingdom but carrying on life assurance business through a branch or agency in the United Kingdom; and

• “periodical return”, in relation to an insurance company, means a return deposited with the Secretary of State under Part II of the Insurance Companies Act 1982.

(3) Subject to section 439, any division to be made between general annuity business, pension business and other life assurance business shall be made on the principle of—

(a) referring to pension business any premiums falling within subsection (4) below, together with the incomings, outgoings and liabilities referable to those premiums and the policies and contracts under which they are or have been paid;

(b) allocating to general annuity business all other annuity business;

and references to “pension fund” and “general annuity fund” shall be construed accordingly, whether or not any such funds are kept separate from the insurance company’s life assurance fund.

(4) The premiums to be referred to pension business are those payable under contracts falling within one or other of the following descriptions, that is to say—

(a) any contract with an individual who is, or would but for an insufficiency of profits or gains be, chargeable to income tax in respect of relevant earnings (as defined in section 623(1) and (2)) from a trade, profession, vocation, office or employment carried on or held by him (being a contract approved by the Board under section 620), or any substituted contract within the meaning of section 622(3);

(b) any contract (including a contract of insurance) entered into for the purposes of, and made with the persons having the management of, an exempt approved scheme as defined in Chapter I of Part XIV, being a contract so framed that the liabilities undertaken by the insurance company under the contract correspond with liabilities against which the contract is intended to secure the scheme;

(c) any contract made under approved personal pension arrangements within the meaning of Chapter IV of Part XIV;

(d) any annuity contract entered into for the purposes of—

(i) a scheme which is approved or is being considered for approval under Chapter I of Part XIV;

(ii) a statutory scheme as defined by section 612(1); or

(iii) a fund to which section 608 applies,

being a contract which is approved by the Board and made with the persons having the management of the scheme or fund (or those persons and a member of or contributor to the scheme or fund) and by means of which relevant benefits as defined by section 612(1) (but no other benefits) are secured;

(e) any annuity contract approved by the Board which is entered into in substitution for a contract within paragraph (d) above;

(f) any contract with the trustees or other persons having the management of a scheme approved under section 620 or, subject to subsection (5) below, of a superannuation fund which was approved under section 208 of the 1970 Act, being a contract which—

(i) was entered into for the purposes only of that scheme or fund or, in the case of a fund part only of which was approved under section 208, for the purposes only of that part of that fund, and

(ii) (in the case of a contract entered into or varied after 1st August 1956) is so framed that the liabilities undertaken by the insurance company under the contract correspond with liabilities against which the contract is intended to secure the scheme or fund (or the relevant part of the fund).

(5) Subsection (4)(c) above shall not apply to premiums payable under a contract where the fund in question was approved under section 208 of the 1970 Act unless—

(a) immediately before 6th April 1980 premiums paid under the contract with the trustees or other persons having the management of the fund fell within section 323(4) of that Act (premiums referable to pension business); and

(b) the terms on which benefits are payable from the fund have not been altered since that time; and

(c) section 608 applies to the fund.

(6) In subsections (3) to (5) above “premium” includes any consideration for an annuity.