Rectification is solution

The taxpayer was a Dutch national who moved to England in 2004. He sold his home in the Netherlands and invested the proceeds in life insurance policies with Zurich Life.

He made withdrawals from the policies in 2007 and 2008 to fund the purchase of a house in the UK. The process required him to complete a form that contained four surrender options. He opted for partial surrender across all policies.

The taxpayer believed no taxable gain would arise because he had taken out no more than he had paid in to the policies. He did not include the withdrawals in his tax returns for 2006/07 and 2007/08.

Zurich Life disclosed the withdrawals to HMRC as it was legally required to do so. The tax department enquired into the returns and concluded that tax was due on the income from the withdrawals under ITTOIA 2005 s 461.