Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

550 Relief where gain charged at a higher rate

(1) The following provisions of this section shall have effect for the purposes of giving relief, on a claim in that behalf being made by him to the Board, in respect of any increase in an individual’s liability to tax which is attributable to one or more amounts being included in his total income for a year of assessment by virtue of section 547(1)(a).

(2) Where one amount only is so included, there shall be computed—

(a) the tax which would be chargeable in respect of the amount if relief under this section were not available and it constituted the highest part of the claimant’s total income for the year, and

(b) the tax (if any) which would be chargeable in respect of the amount if calculated, in accordance with subsection (3) below, by reference to its appropriate fraction;

and the relief shall consist of a reduction or repayment of tax equal to the difference between the two amounts of tax so computed, or, if tax would not be chargeable on a calculation by reference to the appropriate fraction, of a reduction or repayment of the tax equal to the tax computed under paragraph (a) above.

(3) In subsection (2) above “appropriate fraction” means, in relation to any amount, such a sum as bears thereto the same proportion as that borne by one to the number of complete years for which the policy or contract has run before the happening of the chargeable event; and the computation required by paragraph (b) of that subsection shall be made by applying to the amount in question such rate or rates of income tax, other than the basic rate, as would apply if it were reduced to that fraction and, as so reduced, still constituted the highest part of the claimant’s total income for the year.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) above the number of years for which a policy of life insurance has run before the happening of a chargeable event shall be calculated, where appropriate, from the issue of the earliest related policy, meaning, any policy in relation to which the policy is a new policy within the meaning of paragraph 17 of Schedule 15, any policy in relation to which that policy is such a policy, and so on.

(5) Where a chargeable event on the happening of which an amount is included in an individual’s total income by virtue of section 547(1)(a) follows the happening of another chargeable event in relation to the same policy or contract, and each of those events is such an excess as is mentioned in section 540(1)(a)(v), 542(1) or 545(1)(d), subsections (3) and (4) above shall have effect in relation to that amount as if the number of complete years referred to in subsection (3) were the number of complete years elapsing between that other event (or, if more than one, the last of them) and the first-mentioned event.

(6) Where by virtue of section 547(1)(a) two or more amounts are included in an individual’s total income for any year of assessment, subsections (2) and (3) above shall apply as if they together constituted a single amount, but with the approporiate fraction of the whole determined by adding together the appropriate fractions of the individual amounts.

(7) A provision of this section requiring tax to be calculated as if an amount constituted the highest part of a claimant’s total income shall apply notwithstanding any other provision of the Income Tax Acts directing any other amount to be treated as the highest part thereof, but, for the purposes of this section, a claimant’s total income shall be deemed not to include any amount in respect of which he is chargeable to tax under section 34, 35, 36 or 148.