Critical Illness Insurance 07 - Taxation of Critical Illness Policies

As we mentioned in previous article, critical illnessshareholders. As a result, critical illness benefits payable
insurance is a type of insurance which will pay a lumpto a private corporation can only be paid out as either
tax free benefit to the insured if he is diagnosis of onetaxable employment income or taxable dividends.
of the critical illnesses covered by the policy. TheTherefore, it could be significant implications where the
benefit is intended to help insured persons maintaincritical illness benefit is intended to be used by the
their quality of life and financial independence aftershareholders as part of a buy/sell arrangement, or to
suffering a life-threatening illness. In this article, we willfund personal expenses arising from the critical
discuss the taxation of critical illness insurance.illness.d) Corporation critical illness insurance
Critical Illness policy is considered to be an accidentSome employers have incorporated critical illness
and sickness policy.a) If the policyholder, the insured,coverage into a wage loss replacement plan If the
the payer of the premium and the beneficiary are allpremiums for such coverage are deductible as a
the same person, the premium are not tax deductiblebusiness expense to the employer then the benefit are
and the benefits are tax free.b) In a key personnot taxable to the employee because they are not
If premiums are not deducted as business expensespayable on a periodic basis. If the employee suffers a
then the benefit is tax free if the key person insured iscritical illness, benefits will be paid directly to the
designated as the beneficiary. If the business is theemployee under the critical illness policy.
beneficiary of the policy then premium is tax deductibleSome insurers are now offering one policy that
and benefit is taxable.c) Small business ownersincludes both critical illness coverage and life insurance.
purchased critical illness insurance on themselves.The application is underwritten for both benefits at the
When setting up ownership in a private corporation,time of sale. One premium is paid and it funds all the
one significant concern is that there is no mechanismbenefits under the policy and It makes even more
similar to the capital dividend account to permit thecomplicated to the taxation of the policy.
benefits to be paid out on a tax-free basis toI hope this information will help.