Every reporter Tu Yinghao Every editor Zhang Yiming
Zhou Zhou, 35, has an annual income of 100,000 yuan. Last year, she purchased a tax-advantaged health insurance for her family of three. The total premium was 2,300 yuan and the tax rate was 10%. Zhou Zhou could save 230 yuan in tax.
"Can the insurance I buy be tax deductible?" The annual personal tax filing has begun again. Recently, many friends who have purchased tax-advantaged health insurance have raised such questions.
The so-called tax-advantaged health insurance is a kind of insurance that not only deducts personal taxes but also provides health protection. The tax deductible can be up to 2,400 yuan per year.
With the expansion of tax-preferred health insurance products in August last year, the product forms currently available to consumers include medical insurance, nursing insurance, critical illness insurance, etc.
Some products also encourage taxpayers to insure their families and make full use of the tax credit of 2,400 yuan a year.
Xu Yuchen, a founding member of the China Association of Actuaries and a senior actuary, said in an interview with a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" that tax-advantaged health insurance products also include lifelong cancer prevention insurance, million-dollar medical insurance, etc., and consumers can purchase them according to their needs.
At present, the promotion of such products is relatively small, and the most popular one is nursing liability insurance.
Unlimited receipt of tax-advantaged nursing insurance
In addition to personal pension insurance products, tax-deductible insurance purchased by individuals is tax-advantaged health insurance.
The "Daily Economic News" reporter noticed that taking the tax-advantaged health insurance sold on an Internet platform as an example, it includes cancer prevention medical insurance, million-dollar medical insurance, lifelong nursing insurance and other products.
Take a certain Internet tax-advantaged nursing insurance as an example. It can be insured between the ages of 0 and 70, and the coverage period lasts for life, with a waiting period of 90 days.
The product guarantee liability includes nursing insurance benefits and disease death insurance benefits. 10 specific diseases, or level 1 to 3 disability caused by accidents, meet the payment conditions of the contract nursing insurance benefits, and a one-time payment of nursing benefits: before the age of 18, payment The greater of the premium paid or the cash value; 18 to 60 years old, the payment is 1.6 times the premium paid or the cash value, whichever is the greater; the payment is 1.2 times the premium/1.2 times the current price/basic insured amount, whichever is over 61 years old The larger one.
Assume that a 40-year-old man with a monthly income of 20,000 yuan buys insurance and pays 2,400 yuan per year for 10 years and a lifetime guarantee. The basic insured amount is 63,000 yuan.
The personal income tax rate corresponding to a monthly income of 20,000 yuan is 20%, and you can enjoy a personal income tax reduction of 480 yuan per year (2,400 yuan * 20% = 480 yuan).
This means that the actual annual premium paid by the policy holder is 1,920 yuan.
The reporter calculated the cash value listed on the insurance page. After 10 years of insurance, the cash value of the product was 24,406, and the compound interest calculated on the product was 4.32%.
"As a tax-advantaged health insurance, one of the major advantages of this product is that the product has a considerable return rate after tax deductions." Xu Yuchen told reporters that the higher the individual tax rate, the higher the return of this product.
If you have the highest annual salary of one million, the applicable tax rate is 45%, and the compound interest rate of return can reach more than 10%.
"Guaranteed renewal" and other outstanding advantages
The pilot program of tax-preferential health insurance began in May 2015 and was promoted nationwide in July 2017.
However, the tax-preferential health insurance products previously sold were only medical insurance, with a relatively single product form and a very limited population coverage.
In July 2023, the State Administration of Financial Supervision issued the "Notice on Matters Concerning the Application of Commercial Health Insurance Individual Income Tax Preferential Policy Products" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") to achieve optimization and expansion in terms of products, insured people, and business entities.
Compared with the first generation of personal tax-advantage health insurance, which can only be purchased by the unit, the new policy optimizes the process and allows individual customers to carry out insurance and tax deduction operations simply and smoothly.
Industry insiders predict that this will increase the enthusiasm of insurance companies to develop tax-advantaged products.
Since then, advantages such as “can be insured despite pre-existing conditions”, “no deductibles” and “guaranteed renewal” have become the “labels” of the new generation of tax-advantaged health insurance.
According to the requirements of the "Notice", the insurance period or guaranteed renewal period of medical insurance shall not be less than 3 years, and the insurance period of long-term care insurance and disease insurance shall not be less than 5 years.
The reporter noticed that many tax-advantage health insurance product sales pages currently show lifetime guaranteed renewal.
A certain tax-preferred anti-cancer medical insurance shows that the product coverage includes hospitalization, outpatient, and specific drug expenses for cancer (including cancer in situ). The maximum insurance age is 80 years old, the deductible is 0 yuan, and the insurance is guaranteed to be renewed for life.
Insurance cases show that Mr. Zhang, who has an annual income of 100,000 yuan, insures his mother with this product. The annual premium is 1,729 yuan and the tax rate is 10%. Mr. Zhang can save 172.9 yuan in tax.
Industry insiders remind consumers that when it comes to tax deductions, consumers should pay attention to the fact that the tax-advantaged health insurance insured this year can be used for tax deductions when reporting in the following year.
This means that if you purchase tax-advantaged health insurance this year, you will not be able to deduct the tax until next year.
The industry recommends increasing tax incentives
“As the scope of tax-preferred health insurance products expands from single medical insurance to medical, long-term care and disease insurance, and supports policyholders to insure spouses, children and parents, the current tax-preferred limits have little effect in reducing the pressure of insuring the whole family. "During this year's Two Sessions, Zhou Yanfang, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of China Pacific Insurance Strategic Research Center, mentioned in a "Recommendations on Increasing Fiscal and Taxation Support to Promote the Development of Commercial Medical Insurance."
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2022, the average salary of on-the-job employees in urban units across the country will be 117,177 yuan.
According to the "Notice on Promoting the Pilot Policy of Personal Income Tax on Commercial Health Insurance to the Nationwide Implementation", the pre-tax deduction limit for personal income tax on commercial health insurance is 2,400 yuan/year, which is only 2% of the average annual salary.
According to the current personal income tax policy, a marginal tax rate of 10% is roughly applicable to people with an average income of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan. That is, the annual tax discount enjoyed by most people when purchasing tax-advantaged health insurance will not exceed 240 yuan.
Looking at the case of insuring the whole family mentioned at the beginning, Zhou Zhou, who has an annual income of 100,000 yuan, insures a family of three in medical insurance worth one million yuan, which can save 230 yuan in tax, which is close to the tax advantage of 240 yuan. If he insures more family members, There is no insurance limit available.
In this regard, Zheng Bingwen, director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, once suggested that the monthly deduction amount be increased to 400 yuan (4,800 yuan/year), and all beneficiaries can enjoy the 400 yuan monthly deduction amount. In this case, it is necessary and conditional to establish an accumulation sub-account.
Zhou Yanfang suggested that provinces with higher purchasing power and higher average wages for tax-preferred health insurance should be selected as pilots to gradually increase the intensity of tax benefits.