Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

656 Purchased life annuities other than retirement annuities

(1) Subject to section 657, a purchased life annuity shall, for the purposes of the provisions of the Tax Acts relating to tax on annuities and other annual payments, be treated as containing a capital element and, to the extent of the capital element, as not being an annual payment or in the nature of an annual payment; but the capital element in such an annuity shall be taken into account in computing profits or gains or losses for other purposes of the Tax Acts in any circumstances in which a lump sum payment would be taken into account.

(2) Where, in the case of any purchased life annuity to which this section applies, the amount of any annuity payment (but not the term of the annuity) depends on any contingency other than the duration of a human life or lives—

(a) the capital element shall be determined by reference—

(i) to the amount or value of the payments made or other consideration given for the grant of the annuity (“the purchase price”); and

(ii) to the expected term of the annuity, as at the date when the first annuity payment began to accrue, expressed in years (and any odd fraction of a year), and determined by reference to the prescribed tables of mortality;

and in head (ii) above “term” means the period from the date when the first annuity payment begins to accrue to the date when the last payment becomes payable;

(b) the capital element in any annuity payment made in respect of a period of 12 months shall be a fraction—

of the purchase price, where E is the expected term referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) above;

(c) the capital element in any annuity payment made in respect of a period of less than, or more than, 12 months shall be the amount at (b) above reduced or, as the case may be, increased, in the same proportion as the length of that period bears to a period of 12 months;

(d) subsection (3) below shall not apply but paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (4) below shall apply as they apply to that subsection.

(3) Subject to subsection (2) above, in the case of any purchased life annuity to which this section applies—

(a) the capital element shall be determined by reference to the amount or value of the payments made or other consideration given for the grant of the annuity; and

(b) the proportion which the capital element in any annuity payment bears to the total amount of that payment shall be constant for all payments on account of the annuity; and

(c) where neither the term of the annuity nor the amount of any annuity payment depends on any contingency other than the duration of a human life or lives, that proportion shall be the same proportion which the total amount or value of the consideration for the grant of the annuity bears to the actuarial value of the annuity payments as determined in accordance with subsection (4) below; and

(d) where either the term of the annuity or the amount of any annuity payment (but not both) depends on any contingency other than the duration of a human life or lives, that proportion shall be such as may be just, having regard to paragraph (c) above and to the contingencies affecting the annuity; and

(e) where both the term of the annuity and the amount of any annuity payment depend on any contingency other than the duration of a human life or lives, that proportion shall be such as may be just, having regard to subsection (2) above and to the contingencies affecting the annuity.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) above—

(a) any entire consideration given for the grant of an annuity and for some other matter shall be apportioned as appears just (but so that a right to a return of premiums or other consideration for an annuity shall not be treated for this purpose as a distinct matter from the annuity);

(b) where it appears that the amount or value of the consideration purporting to be given for the grant of an annuity has affected, or has been affected by, the consideration given for some other matter, the aggregate amount or value of those considerations shall be treated as one entire consideration given for both and shall be apportioned under paragraph (a) above accordingly; and

(c) the actuarial value of any annuity payments shall be taken to be their value as at the date when the first of those payments begins to accrue, that value being determined by reference to the prescribed tables of mortality and without discounting any payment for the time to elapse between that date and the date it is to be made.

(5) Where a person making a payment on account of any life annuity has been notified in the prescribed manner of any decision as to its being or not being a purchased life annuity to which this section applies or as to the amount of the capital element (if any), and has not been notified of any alteration of that decision, the notice shall be conclusive as to those matters for the purpose of determining the amount of income tax which he is entitled or required to deduct from the payment, or for which he is chargeable in respect of it.

(6) Where a person making a payment on account of a purchased life annuity to which this section applies has not been notified in the prescribed manner of the amount of the capital element, the amount of income tax which he is entitled or required to deduct from the payment, or for which he is chargeable in respect of it, shall be the same as if the annuity were not a purchased life annuity to which this section applies.