Income Tax Act 2007 section 456

Payments under orders for recovery of benefit etc.

Section 456 explains how certain maintenance payments made under recovery of benefit orders qualify for tax relief, even though they are paid to the government rather than directly to a former spouse or partner.

• Where a person liable to pay maintenance has their payments redirected to the government under a recovery of benefit order, those payments can still qualify for the maintenance payments tax relief.
• A recovery of benefit order arises where the person entitled to receive maintenance has claimed income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance, and the government recovers the cost from the person who should have been paying maintenance.
• The payments must be periodical (recurring) and made to the Secretary of State or, in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
• These payments are treated as meeting the requirement (condition A in section 454) that they be made under a court order or equivalent legal obligation, so that the payer can obtain the qualifying maintenance payment tax reduction.