Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

Valid from 19/03/1997

[F1 437A Meaning of “steep-reduction annuity” etc. U.K.

(1) For the purposes of section 437 an annuity is a steep-reduction annuity if—

(a) the amount of any payment in respect of the annuity (but not the term of the annuity) depends on any contingency other than the duration of a human life or lives;

(b) the annuitant is entitled in respect of the annuity to payments of different amounts at different times; and

(c) those payments include a payment (“a reduced payment”) of an amount which is substantially smaller than the amount of at least one of the earlier payments in respect of that annuity to which the annuitant is entitled.

(2) Where there are different intervals between payments to which an annuitant is entitled in respect of any annuity, the question whether or not the conditions in subsection (1)(b) and (c) above are satisfied in the case of that annuity shall be determined by assuming—

(a) that the annuitant’s entitlement, after the first payment, to payments in respect of that annuity is an entitlement to payments at yearly intervals on the anniversary of the first payment; and

(b) that the amount to which the annuitant is assumed to be entitled on each such anniversary is equal to the annuitant’s assumed entitlement for the year ending with that anniversary.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) above an annuitant’s assumed entitlement for any year shall be determined as follows—

(a) the annuitant’s entitlement to each payment in respect of the annuity shall be taken to accrue at a constant rate during the interval between the previous payment and that payment; and

(b) his assumed entitlement for any year shall be taken to be equal to the aggregate of the amounts which, in accordance with paragraph (a) above, are treated as accruing in that year.

(4) In the case of an annuity to which subsection (2) above applies, the reference in section 437(1CB)(a) to the making of a reduced payment shall be construed as if it were a reference to the making of a payment in respect of that annuity which (applying subsection (3)(a) above) is taken to accrue at a rate that is substantially less than the rate at which at least one of the earlier payments in respect of that annuity is taken to accrue.

(5) Where—

(a) any question arises for the purposes of this section whether the amount of any payment in respect of any annuity—

(i) is substantially smaller than the amount of, or

(ii) accrues at a rate substantially less than,

an earlier payment in respect of that annuity, and

(b) the annuitant or, as the case may be, every annuitant is an individual who is beneficially entitled to all the rights conferred on him as such an annuitant,

that question shall be determined without regard to so much of the difference between the amounts or rates as is referable to a reduction falling to be made as a result of the occurrence of a death.

(6) Where the amount of any one or more of the payments to which an annuitant is entitled in respect of an annuity depends on any contingency, his entitlement to payments in respect of that annuity shall be determined for the purposes of section 437(1CA) to (1CC) and this section according to whatever (applying any relevant actuarial principles) is the most likely outcome in relation to that contingency.

(7) Where any agreement or arrangement has effect for varying the rights of an annuitant in relation to a payment in respect of any annuity, that payment shall be taken, for the purposes of section 437(1CA) to (1CC) and this section, to be a payment of the amount to which the annuitant is entitled in accordance with that agreement or arrangement.

(8) References in this section to a contingency include references to a contingency that consists wholly or partly in the exercise by any person of any option.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 437A inserted (with effect in accordance with s. 67(8) of the amending Act) by Finance Act 1997 (c. 16), s. 67(3)