Published on 7 October 2019

Building families through surrogacy – a new law

Submissions

The LITRG has responded to this consultation with some thoughts on a number of tax, National Insurance and related welfare benefits issues that we believe need to be addressed. Surrogacy arrangements have seemingly developed over the years without any apparent thought to these peripheral, yet extremely important, issues. The present lack of clarity is not sustainable, particularly if there is growth in the number of surrogacy arrangements and the inability to understand their position and the risk of becoming non-compliant with tax, benefits and other law may be acting as a deterrent to potential surrogates.

child and man dressed the same
©shutterstock/olesiabilkei

We offer comments for discussion (amongst others) on:

  • The tax implications of various types of payment to surrogates, including expenses reimbursement, compensation, lost earnings, lost entitlement to social welfare benefits, gifts and payment for surrogacy services
  • The interaction with other areas of law such as the student loans, child maintenance
  • Welfare benefits for the surrogate
  • National Insurance

Our submission can be found here: Building families through surrogacy – a new law – LITRG response

Kelly Sizer

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