Section 443 of ICTA (no paragraph in Schedule 1)
3443.Section 443 of ICTA is repealed for income tax purposes. This is achieved by retaining the text of this provision, as Schedule D Cases I and VI will apply solely for corporation tax purposes after this Act.
3444.Section 443 of ICTA deals with the case in which the proceeds of a life assurance policy are paid out in the form of assets and not in cash. When section 443 of ICTA was introduced as section 35 of FA 1967 the section governed the treatment of the assets for the purposes of both capital gains and short term gains (Schedule D Case VII).
3445.At that time the disposal by the insurance company would usually be taxed as a capital gain. The main purpose of the 1967 legislation was to make clear that the disposal was at market value. It seems the reference to Schedule D Cases I, VI and VII was to deal with the less common case in which the corporation tax charge on the company on disposal was taxed under these Cases.
3446.The section also put it beyond doubt that the base cost of the asset to the policy holder was market value either for capital gains or short term gains purposes.
3447.The reference to short term gains was repealed in 1971. And with the consolidation of the capital gains tax code, the capital gains tax rule can now be found in section 204(3) of TCGA. These changes to the section mean that, in the income tax context, section 443 of ICTA now deals only with the policy holder’s acquisition of the assets for the purposes of Schedule D Cases I and VI. But of course the mere acquisition of the assets cannot give rise to any liability under Schedule D Cases I or VI.
3448.The value of the assets acquired would be reflected in a Schedule D Case I computation only if the policy itself were held as trading stock. In that unlikely event the Inland Revenue is content to follow generally accepted accounting practice in calculating the profits of the trade.
3449.It is very difficult to envisage any circumstances in which the disposal of assets acquired on the maturity of an insurance policy would give rise to a Schedule D Case VI liability. But in that most unlikely event the application of the decision in Curtis Brown Ltd v Jarvis (1929), 14 TC 744 HC would suggest a similar result as for Schedule D Case I.
