Review of HMRC’s April 2021 update on top slicing relief

HMRC’s April Agent Update (tinyurl.com/hmrcau83) includes an article on the top slicing relief fully automated approach on life insurance policy gains. As readers will be aware this is a subject close to my heart – see for example my article ‘Here we go again’ (Taxation 27 August 2020 page 16). The following is a reproduction of the HMRC update article with my comments (italicised).

‘The top slicing relief fully automated approach on life insurance policy gains is active from 6 April 2021.

‘HMRC is working to make sure all affected customers from 2018-19 onwards receive all the relief they’re entitled to.

‘Recalculation of reduced personal allowances

‘The new measure acts to change how we treat the personal allowance in the calculation of top slicing relief.

‘We’re not changing how we calculate any other relief allowance or rate such as the savings nil...