Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 Explanatory Notes

Section 678: Taxable benefits: foreign benefits

2691.This section identifies the foreign benefits that are taxable. The section is new. The taxable foreign benefits are part of “taxable benefits” (section 657(3)).

2692.Subsection (1)(a) uses words similar to those used in section 318(2)(c) of ICTA (war pensions) to identify the foreign benefits that are taxable. Subsection (1)(b) reproduces the territorial restriction in paragraph (a)(i) of Schedule D (section 18(1) of ICTA). A foreign social security benefit is charged to tax only if it is payable to a United Kingdom resident.

2693.Subsection (2) is a boundary rule. It provides that a foreign social security benefit that is also a pension is taxed only once, in the pension income Part. United Kingdom benefits that are pensions are identified in the pension income Part and do not appear in Table A. So there is no overlap. But it is theoretically possible for a foreign benefit within this section to take the form of a pension. In that case, the boundary rule ensures that the benefit is charged as a pension and qualifies for the one-tenth deduction in section 65(2) of ICTA.

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