SolvedIPTM6110 | Sickness disability and unemployment insurance: tax treatment: main rules: scope of the exemption: ITTOIA05/S735
From HM Revenue & Customs · Insurance Policyholder Taxation Manual
From 6 April 1996 payments received from policies taken out to protect a person from sickness, disability or unemployment will generally be tax free where the premiums were paid out of taxed income.
The legislation exempts payments that would otherwise be taxable as annual payments (dealt with at SAIM8000 onwards).
Payments from non-UK policies, which are not a UK source of income, are treated in the same way as payments from UK policies. There are no special or additional conditions that must be met for the payments to qualify for the exemption.
The rules relating to payments received from policies taken out by individuals are set out below. Where payments are received from employers’ schemes, and other situations where someone else has paid part of the premiums for the policy, see IPTM6120.
Scope of the exemption: ITTOIA05/S735
Payments received from an insurance policy are exempt from tax if
the insured person (see below) did not receive income tax relief for the premiums paid for the policy: this means UK income tax, so the exemption is still available if relief has been given outside the UK against foreign taxes
the policy insures against a qualifying health or employment risk - IPTM6115
the payments are made during the qualifying period - IPTM6115, and
the policy is a genuine insurance policy issued on arm’s length terms (see below).
There is no limit on the amount of payments that can be received free of tax.
The insured person: ITTOIA05/S742
For the purposes of the exemption only, the insured person includes:
spouse or civil partner
child (under 21)
spouse’s child (under 21), and
any person who is jointly liable for the expense that is insured, for example a joint borrower on a mortgage.
Without these extensions to the definition of insured person a payment from a policy because of the sickness disability or unemployment of one person would be taxable on another person to the extent that they benefited from the payment. This extension allows such payments to come within the exemption.
Genuine arm’s length insurance
There are rules aimed at preventing abuse of the exemption. For