Tax Equity And Financial Responsibility Acts Of 1982 And 1983 (TEFRA)
Legislation that redefined life insurance and raised taxes on life insurance companies. Among the provisions were new rules for some life insurance products, including a definition of flexible premium life insurance, and an increase in life insurance company taxes. Congress was concerned that a policyholder could take a substantial amount, say $1 million, and, after putting a few dollars toward a life insurance premium, put the remainder into a tax-free investment vehicle. One of two tests had to be satisfied for a policy to qualify as life insurance: the cash surrender value policy could not exceed a net single premium, and the death benefit had to represent a certain percentage of the cash value, which declined as the policy-holder got older. For example, at age 40, the death benefit must be 140% of cash value. The second rule closed a loophole on tax-free withdrawals from annuities. Prior to 1982 annuity holders could withdraw their initial premium tax free at any time. The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable. The older 1959 tax code devised a shorthand formula for determining taxes paid by insurers. The formula worked when interest rates were low, but as they soared, insurers found ways to reduce the increased tax bite. The 1982 code introduced a stopgap measure designed to raise taxes on life insurers by $3 billion.
Popular Insurance Terms
Period of time of insurance coverage. If a loss occurs during this time, insurance benefits are paid. If a loss occurs after this time period has expired, no insurance benefits are paid. ...
Detailed descriptive list made available to the survivor (s) of the insured showing: attorney, accountant, insurance agent, and location of important documents such as wills, power of ...
Pooling of assets of two or more pension funds under common portfolio management. ...
Legislation that changed the tax treatment concerning child-care expenses so that an employee who has incurred child-care expenses greater than $4800 and who is participating in a ...
Addition to the pure cost of insurance that reflects agent commissions, premium taxes, administrative costs associated with putting business on an insurance company's books, and ...
Right of a policyholder in life insurance with cash value to elect a smaller, fully paid-up policy, without any further premiums to pay. The amount of the paid-up policy is determined by ...
Pension plan under which both the contribution (employer and employee if a contributory plan) and the benefit structure are fixed. In order to properly maintain the actuarial equivalent, ...
Coverage for the contents of a renter's home or apartment and for liability. Tenant policies are similar to homeowners insurance, except that they do not cover the structure. They do, ...
Requirement of state approval of property insurance rates and policy forms before they can be used. Individual states regulate insurers and approve their rates. There are three methods of ...
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