IPT06205 | Maintaining the IPT register: registration: liability to register for IPT

Section 53(l) of The Finance Act 1994 says:

A person who-

(a) receives, as insurer, premiums in the course of a taxable business, and

(b) is not registered,

is liable to be registered.

‘Person’ means any legal or natural person, and includes sole proprietors, partnerships, and any incorporated company whether British or foreign.

Only persons who receive premiums as insurers are liable to registration. This means that brokers, intermediaries or agents who receive premiums on behalf of insurers cannot register. Taxable intermediaries (persons who charge an additional fee in relation to a higher rate contract of insurance) are treated as insurers for the purpose of this section (see IPT06800 for more information on taxable intermediaries).

Organisations which co-ordinate the underwriting activity of Lloyd’s syndicates, ‘pools’ or other groups, but which are not themselves insurers, cannot register even if they wish to do so as an administrative convenience.