The 5% allowance trap: a taxable gain on a bond that lost money

Each policy year, a bond holder may withdraw up to 5% of the premiums paid without an immediate tax charge. Unused allowance rolls forward, and the pool caps at 100% of premiums (twenty years of unused 5%s). The trap is in what the allowance is: a deferral mechanism measured against premiums, not a measure of profit. A part surrender above the cumulative allowance creates a chargeable event gain equal to the excess — whatever the bond has actually done.

A losing bond that produces a tax bill

An offshore bond: £100,000 single premium, three complete policy years, nothing withdrawn so far, current value £95,000 — the investment is down £5,000. The client asks for £30,000. The cumulative allowance is 3 × 5% × £100,000 = £15,000. A part surrender of £30,000 exceeds it by £15,000, and that excess is a chargeable event gain before any TAR in the year.

Worked-example basis: No time-apportioned reduction is due for any gain or policy shown. TAR is not calculated or applied. Raw gains are shown before any TAR.

A £2,900 income-tax bill falls due on an investment that has lost £5,000. Nothing has gone wrong in the computation. The part-surrender rule is working as designed: it measures the withdrawal against the allowance, not against growth.

IPTM3540 · IPTM3560 · ITTOIA 2005 s.507 — figures engine-computed, 2026/27 config

The knock-ons people miss

The artificial gain is real income for every test that keys off income: it counts toward adjusted net income for the £100,000 personal-allowance taper, toward the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and toward the PSA banding. A “tax-free 5% withdrawal” framing also misleads in the other direction — within the allowance nothing is tax-free, only deferred; every deferred amount washes through the final surrender computation.

The common error, and the way out

The error is treating the 5% allowance as the only way to get money out. The same £30,000 taken by surrendering whole segmentsproduces a gain measured on actual performance — on this bond, no gain before any TAR at all (the engine's segment route raises £30,400 from 32 of 100 segments with £0 tax). The mechanics of that comparison are the subject of part surrender vs segment surrender, and you can price all three routes on your own figures with the chargeable event gain calculator. The decision has to be made — and instructed — beforethe provider pays the money out; an excess event, once triggered, can't be re-routed.

For genuinely disproportionate outcomes, ITTOIA 2005 s.507A (rectification on application) exists — narrow, post-2017, and no substitute for choosing the right route first.