Finance Act, 1974

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Amendment of section 235 of Income Tax Act, 1967.

65.— Section 235 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , is hereby amended—

(a) by the insertion in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) after “in his old age” of “or under a contract for the time being approved under section 235A”,

(b) by the substitution for the part of subsection (2) from the end of paragraph (e) to the end of the subsection of the following:

“and that it does include provision securing that no annuity payable under it shall be capable in whole or in part of surrender, commutation or assignment:

Provided that the contract may provide for the payment to the individual at the time the annuity commences to be payable, but not before the 6th day of April, 1974, of a lump sum by way of commutation of part of the annuity not exceeding one-fourth of the value of the annuity if the individual elects, at or before the time when the annuity first becomes payable to him, to be paid the lump sum.”,

(c) by the insertion in subsection (3) after paragraph (c) of the following paragraph:

“(cc) if the individual's occupation is one in which persons customarily retire after attaining the age of seventy, for the annuity to commence after he attains that age (but not after he attains the age of eighty);”,

(d) by the insertion in subsection (4)—

(i) after “trust scheme” of “or part of a trust scheme”,

(ii) after “the scheme” of “or the aforesaid part of the scheme”, and

(iii) after “a scheme” of “or part of a scheme”,

and the said paragraph (b) and subsections (2), (3) and (4), as so amended, are set out in the Table to this section.

TABLE

(b) pays a premium or other consideration under an annuity contract for the time being approved by the Revenue Commissioners as being a contract the main benefit secured by which is a life annuity for the individual in his old age or under a contract for the time being approved under section 235A (hereinafter in this Chapter referred to as a qualifying premium),

relief from tax may be given in respect of the qualifying premium under section 236.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Revenue Commissioners shall not approve a contract unless it appears to them to satisfy the conditions that it is made by the individual with a person lawfully carrying on in the State the business of granting annuities on human life, and that it does not—

(a) provide for the payment by that person during the life of the individual of any sum except sums payable by way of annuity to the individual,

(b) provide for the annuity payable to the individual to commence before he attains the age of sixty or after he attains the age of seventy,

(c) provide for the payment by that person of any other sums except sums payable by way of annuity to the individual's widow or widower and any sums which, in the event of no annuity becoming payable either to the individual or to a widow or widower, are payable to the individual's personal representatives by way of return of premiums, by way of reasonable interest on premiums or by way of bonuses out of profits,

(d) provide for the annuity, if any, payable to a widow or widower of the individual to be of a greater annual amount than that paid or payable to the individual, or

(e) provide for the payment of any annuity otherwise than for the life of the annuitant,

and that it does include provision securing that no annuity payable under it shall be capable in whole or in part of surrender, commutation or assignment:

Provided that the contract may provide for the payment to the individual at the time the annuity commences to be payable, but not before the 6th day of April, 1974, of a lump sum by way of commutation of part of the annuity not exceeding one-fourth of the value of the annuity if the individual elects, at or before the time when the annuity first becomes payable to him, to be paid the lump sum.

(3) The Revenue Commissioners may, if they think fit, and subject to any conditions they think proper to impose, approve a contract otherwise satisfying the foregoing conditions, notwithstanding that the contract provides for one or more of the following matters:

(a) for the payment after the individual's death of an annuity to a dependant not the widow or widower of the individual;

(b) for the payment to the individual of an annuity commencing before he attains the age of sixty, if the annuity is payable on his becoming permanently incapable through infirmity of mind or body of carrying on his own occupation or any occupation of a similar nature for which he is trained or fitted;

(c) if the individual's occupation is one in which persons customarily retire before attaining the age of sixty, for the annuity to commence before he attains that age (but not before he attains the age of fifty);

(cc) if the individual's occupation is one in which persons customarily retire after attaining the age of seventy for the annuity to commence after he attains that age (but not after he attains the age of eighty);

(d) for the annuity payable to any person to continue for a term certain (not exceeding ten years) notwithstanding his death within that term, or for the annuity payable to any person to terminate, or be suspended, on marriage (or remarriage) or in other circumstances;

(e) in the case of an annuity which is to continue for a term certain, for the annuity to be assignable by will, and in the event of any person dying entitled to it, for it to be assignable by his personal representatives in the distribution of the estate so as to give effect to a testamentary disposition, or to the rights of those entitled on intestacy or to an appropriation of it to a legacy or to a share or interest in the estate.

(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply in relation to a contribution under a trust scheme or part of a trust scheme approved by the Revenue Commissioners as they apply in relation to a premium under an annuity contract so approved, with the modification that, for the condition as to the person with whom the contract is made, there shall be substituted a condition that the scheme or the aforesaid part of the scheme—

(a) is established under the law of, and administered in, the State,

(b) is established for the benefit of individuals engaged in or connected with a particular occupation (or one or other of a group of occupations), and for the purpose of providing retirement annuities for them, with or without subsidiary benefits for their families or dependants, and

(c) is so established under irrevocable trusts by a body of persons comprising or representing the majority of the individuals so engaged in the State,

and with the necessary adaptations of other references to the contract or the person with whom it is made; and exemption from income tax shall be allowed in respect of income derived from investments or deposits of any fund maintained for the purpose aforesaid under a scheme or part of a scheme for the time being approved under this subsection.