Insurer calls for tax rebate in the Budget
ZURICH is calling on the chancellor George Osborne to offer a tax rebate for income protection insurance, in a submission to the Treasury ahead of the Budget next week.
Chief executive Gary Shaughnessy has written to Osborne to ask for a temporary annual tax-rebate of £50 per insured person and employer, in a bid to tackle what the insurer is calling an under-insured market.
“A tax rebate would deliver considerable value to insured people, while the government would end up making substantial long-term savings at a time when we know it has to find viable alternatives to high welfare spending,” Shaughnessy said.
He added that the scheme could provide the government with £725m in annual savings over a two year period. Zurich calculated that the policy would cost the exchequer £300m and that claimants would be better off by £820m a year.