Finance (No. 2) Act, 1959

Life insurance premiums, etc.

17.—(1) This section applies to premiums payable on policies of insurance or contracts for deferred annuities, being policies or contracts made after the 22nd day of June, 1916, and also to sums referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 32 of the Income Tax Act, 1918.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in section 32 of the Income Tax Act, 1918, no relief shall be granted under that section in respect of any premium or other sum to which this section applies.

(3) A person to whom relief under section 32 of the Income Tax Act, 1918, would, but for subsection (2) of this section, have been allowable in respect of a premium or sum, or part of a premium or sum, to which this section applies shall, if he makes a claim in that behalf in the manner prescribed by the Income Tax Acts and makes a return in the prescribed form of his total income, be entitled, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the income on which he is to be charged to tax (excluding sur-tax), to have a deduction made from his assessable income equal—

(a) in case the policy or contract concerned is a policy or contract, referred to in section 2 of the Finance Act, 1953 , to two-thirds of the amount of premium in respect of which relief would have been allowable as aforesaid after giving effect to any restrictions that may be appropriate in accordance with paragraphs (a), (c) and (d) of subsection (3) of the said section 32, and

(b) in any other case, to one-half of the amount of the premium or other sum in respect of which relief would have been so allowable.

(4) The provisions of the Income Tax Acts relating to allowances or deductions within the meaning of the Third Schedule to the Finance Act, 1920 , shall have effect in relation to deductions under subsection (3) of this section.

(5) Section 9 of the Finance Act, 1958 , is hereby amended as follows:

(i) in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) “or section 17 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1959,” shall be inserted after “Income Tax Act, 1918,”;

(ii) in subsection (6) “under section 17 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1959,” shall be inserted after “Income Tax Act, 1918,”.

(6) References in the Income Tax Acts to relief in respect of life assurance premiums shall be construed as including references to deductions under subsection (3) of this section.