myTax 2018 Bonuses from life insurance companies and friendly societies

You receive a bonus because your life insurance policy or friendly society insurance bond matured, or was terminated, forfeited, or surrendered in full or in part.

Life insurance policies are issued by life insurance companies and friendly societies.

Do not declare as income:

• any bonus amounts received after the 10th year of the policy
• any life insurance bonuses from policies that  
  • you started before 28 August 1982
  • matured due to the death of the person insured
  • you surrendered due to an accident, illness or other disability of the person insured
  • you surrendered due to severe financial hardship
  • are retirement savings accounts
• any benefits you received from a friendly society that are bonuses from income bonds; include these amounts in the Any other income section with the Type of payment as Other.

If you have received a statement detailing the bonus amount allocated to your continuing life insurance policy or friendly society bond but you have not actually received the bonus or directed how it is to be dealt with, do not include the bonus amount as income.

You need to know

You need to include a bonus amount at this section if all the following conditions apply:

• you received the bonus amount, or directed how it is to be dealt with, within 10 years from when the policy started
• your life insurance policy or friendly society insurance bond matured, or was terminated, forfeited, or surrendered in full or in part, and
• the bonus amount was in addition to the premiums you paid to the life insurance company or friendly society.

If, during the term of your life insurance policy or bond, you increased the amount of your premiums by more than 25% of the amount of premiums you paid in the previous policy year, your policy is taken to start at the beginning of the policy year in which you paid the increased premiums. This means that you may need to include some or all of a bonus amount in your assessable income.

You cannot claim a loss if your life insurance policy or friendly society insurance bond matured or was partly or fully surrendered, terminated or forfeited.

Different rules apply to a bonus received from a policy that started on or after 28 August 1982 and before 8 December 1983. Generally such a bonus does not need to be included in assessable income unless the policy has been taken to start at a later date and the rules apply. If you are not sure whether you need to include your bonus, phone 13 28 61.

Tax offset

You will get a tax offset equal to 30% of the amount you show at this section. We will work out this tax offset for you.

Completing this section

You will need your:

• life insurance policy and bonus advice
• friendly society policy and bonus advice.

1. For each bonus from life insurance and friendly societies, select Add.
2. At Type of payment, select Bonuses from life insurance and friendly societies and enter information into the corresponding fields.
   From your bonus advice, enter  
   • the whole bonus amount you received in 2017–18 if you received it during the first eight years of the policy
   • two-thirds of the bonus amount you received in 2017–18 if you received it during the ninth year of the policy, or
   • one-third of the bonus amount you received in 2017–18 if you received it during the 10th year of the policy
   Do not include any bonus amount received after the 10th year of the policy.
3. Select Save.
4. Select Save and continue.

These myTax 2018 instructions are about bonuses from life insurance companies and friendly societies.