SEISS and life insurance, and appeal?

chris1

Is there any appeal for a self-employed person with a 25-year life insurance policy which matured in 2018-19?

They fit all the criteria for the grant other than this one-off event, where the policy was taken out for a specific purpose, meaning the money is not sitting in a bank account anywhere.

Normally a life insurance gain would be apportioned over the 25 years for top slicing relief in higher rate tax calculations.  Are there grounds for appeal in this situation, and if so how would they go about it?

Thanks for any replies.

Jeremy535897

Most 25 year policies would be qualifying policies. If it is not, and a chargeable event arose in 2018/19, there are no grounds of appeal with regard to SEISS. Top slicing relief does not treat the gain as arising in each of the years of the policy. All it does is alter the way the amount of higher rate tax is calculated on the gain.

dunstonh

They fit all the criteria for the grant other than this one-off event, where the policy was taken out for a specific purpose, meaning the money is not sitting in a bank account anywhere.

Was the policy a whole of life plan or an endowment?   You say it was 25 years.  So, this makes it sound like an endowment. If endowment, then most of these were qualifying plans and have absolutely no impact on income.  Only non-qualifying plans could but these are very uncommon.

Top slicing relief is not applied to qualifying plans and is not subject to chargeable gains.

Do you know if it was a qualifying plan or a non-qualifying plan?