IPT03100 - Overview and the law: purpose and outline of this section

This section provides general information about IPT. It identifies the main parts of the legislation that governs IPT and provides assistance by:

• identifying relevant areas of UK law, to enable you to establish the legal basis for any decisions you make about IPT;
• giving relevant background information in order to clarify the law and to put it into a practical context; and
• highlighting areas of possible contention and explaining our current policy in relation to those areas.

This section will also help you to decide whether the person you are dealing with is an insurer and whether there is a contract of insurance. When you have decided this, you can go to later sections that deal with liability, registration, valuation and accounting in more detail.

Taxes on insurance premiums have existed in one form or another in some other European states since 1850.