Accredited official statistics

Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) commentary (July 2024)

Updated 31 July 2024

Headlines

The latest 12 months of provisional Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) receipts and liabilities data show that:

• total IPT receipts for the last complete financial year 2023 to 2024 were £8,146 million, which is £805 million (11%) higher than the previous financial year 2022 to 2023

• standard rate IPT liabilities for the last complete financial year 2023 to 2024 were £8,253 million, which is £918 million (13%) higher than the previous financial year 2022 to 2023

• higher rate IPT liabilities for the last complete financial year 2023 to 2024 were £475 million, which is £60 million (14%) higher than the previous financial year 2022 to 2023

• total provisional IPT receipts for the 2024 to 2025 financial year-to-date (April to June) are £2,116 million, which is £236 million (13%) higher than the same period in the previous financial year 2023 to 2024

About this release

This publication provides National Statistics on IPT receipts and declarations.

National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

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

The latest release was published 09:30 31 July 2024 and has been updated with provisional duty receipts data from July 2023 to June 2024 and provisional duty liabilities data from June 2023 to May 2024.

The next release will be published 09:30 31 July 2025 and will be updated with provisional duty receipts data from July 2024 to June 2025 and provisional duty liabilities data from June 2024 to May 2025.

The Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) Bulletin is Crown copyright. Its contents can be used as long as the source is made clear by the user.

Receipts

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

Financial Year	Total IPT receipts, £ million
2014-15	2,965
2015-16	3,293
2016-17	4,861
2017-18	5,669
2018-19	6,196
2019-20	6,415
2020-21	6,307
2021-22	6,627
2022-23	7,341
2023-24	8,146

For the full dataset that accompanies Table 1 go to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) tables (July 2024)

Table 1 illustrates the following trends:

• IPT receipts were generally increasing from the 2014 to 2015 financial year until the 2020 to 2021 financial year, when receipts dropped slightly compared to the 2019 to 2020 financial year, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. From the 2021 to 2022 financial year up to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, receipts have returned to the rising trend

• the general increasing trend since the financial year 2014 to 2015 is partly due to duty rate increases of standard rate IPT in 2015, 2016, and 2017

• growing IPT receipts in the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 financial years largely reflect rising car insurance premiums over this period. Higher levels of international travel also contributed through higher revenue from travel insurance

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.

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

Financial Quarter	Standard Rated Liabilities, £ million	Higher Rated Liabilities, £ million	Total Liabilities, £ million
2018-19 Q1	1,614	84	1,699
2018-19 Q2	1,530	109	1,639
2018-19 Q3	1,520	97	1,618
2018-19 Q4	1,523	86	1,609
2019-20 Q1	1,642	86	1,728
2019-20 Q2	1,587	97	1,685
2019-20 Q3	1,567	93	1,661
2019-20 Q4	1,564	99	1,663
2020-21 Q1	1,564	70	1,634
2020-21 Q2	1,611	61	1,673
2020-21 Q3	1,559	64	1,623
2020-21 Q4	1,585	60	1,646
2021-22 Q1	1,696	58	1,754
2021-22 Q2	1,709	61	1,770
2021-22 Q3	1,664	61	1,725
2021-22 Q4	1,678	87	1,765
2022-23 Q1	1,854	86	1,940
2022-23 Q2	1,815	117	1,932
2022-23 Q3	1,819	111	1,930
2022-23 Q4	1,847	101	1,948
2023-24 Q1	2,053	113	2,166
2023-24 Q2	2,052	134	2,186
2023-24 Q3	2,050	121	2,172
2023-24 Q4	2,099	107	2,206

For the full dataset that accompanies Table 2 go to Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) tables (July 2024)

Table 2 illustrates the following trends:

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

• standard rate declarations have followed a generally rising trend over the period shown, with some fluctuation from quarter to quarter

• higher rate declarations increased in the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 financial years, having previously fallen in the 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022 financial years

• having been fairly stable previously, liabilities in both standard and higher rated tax increased in the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 financial years. The increase in standard rated liabilities is due to rising car insurance premiums over the period in question. Increases in international travel contributed to the larger liabilities in higher rated tax, since travel insurance is always taxed at the higher rate

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.