National statistics

Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) commentary (July 2023)

Updated 28 July 2023

Headlines

Total IPT receipts for the last complete financial year, 2022 to 2023, were £7,341 million, which is £714 million (11%) higher than the previous financial year.

Standard rate IPT liabilities for the last complete financial year, 2022 to 2023, were £7,336 million, which is £589 million (9%) higher than the previous financial year.

Higher rate IPT liabilities for the last complete financial year, 2022 to 2023, were £410 million, which is £143 million (54%) higher than the previous financial year.

Total provisional IPT receipts for the 2023 to 2024 financial year-to-date (April to June) are £1,880 million, which is £114 million (6%) higher than the same period in the previous financial year.

About this release

This publication provides Official Statistics on IPT receipts and declarations.

The statistics in this release are based on recent and historic trader returns, up to June 2023.

IPT is a tax on general insurance premiums. There are 2 rates:

• a standard rate charged on most insurance premiums
• a higher rate for travel insurance, mechanical or electrical appliances insurance and some vehicle insurance

Receipts

Figure 1: Total IPT receipts for the previous ten financial years, in £ million

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 1 go to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) tables (July 2023)

Figure 1 illustrates the following trends:

• over the last 10 years IPT receipts have followed a generally increasing trend but were fairly stable up to the financial year 2014 to 2015

• total yearly IPT receipts have been generally increasing since the financial year 2014 to 2015, this is partly due to duty rate increases of standard rate IPT in 2015, 2016, and 2017

• increases in insurance premium prices in the 2022 to 2023 financial year are reflected in the growth of receipts in that year

Returns analysis

IPT taxpayers mainly follow quarterly accounting periods. Tax returns are due by the end of the month following the accounting period. Payment of tax is also generally due to HMRC by the same time, but taxpayers who pay by direct debit are given a 7 day extension.

These accounting periods and payment patterns cause a 1 to 2 month lag between accounting periods ending and receipts being received by HMRC. This explains why the latest data for liabilities from returns is 1 month behind the latest data for receipts in this publication.

Figure 2: Total standard and higher rate liabilities declared by financial quarter for the previous 6 financial years, in £ million

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 2 go to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) tables (July 2023)

Figure 2 illustrates the following trends:

• standard rate liabilities make up a large majority of total liabilities

• standard rate declarations have followed a rising trend since the 2017 to 2018 financial year

• a rise in the standard rate in June 2017 explains a large proportion of the rise in liabilities between the 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 financial years

• higher rate declarations increased in the 2022 to 2023 financial year, having fallen in the 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022 financial years

• having been fairly stable for several years, total liabilities have increased in the 2022 to 2023 financial year

Contacts

The IPT Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the Excise duties, VAT, and other tax statistics collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

For media enquiries, see HMRC press office.