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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Same as term Expense Allowance: payment to an insurance agent in addition to commissions. Expense allowances, that differ from company to company, vary with the amount of business agents ...
Fund that contains the portion of the premium that has been paid in advance for insurance that has not yet been provided. For example, if a business pays an annual premium of $1000 on ...
Membership organization of insurance companies that write workers compensation insurance. The organization collects statistics on the frequency and severity of job-related injuries to ...
Organization of trial attorneys who specialize in the representation of defendants who become subject to tort actions. Generally, these tort actions involve bodily injury or personal injury ...
Fund in a segregated account to provide for the return of unearned premiums on policies that are canceled. ...
In personal injury cases, damages awarded to the plaintiff for the loss of joy of living. For example, if a person's negligent act results in damage to another person's leg, the injured ...
Insurance in which most of the premium (generally 80 to 90%) is invested in traditional fixed income securities. The remainder of the premium is invested in call option contracts tied to a ...
Common exclusion in life and accidental death insurance (double indemnity) policies, indicating that coverage does not apply unless an insured is a passenger on a regularly scheduled ...
Means of projecting the costs of pension plans on a level basis over a specified future period of time. The actuarial value of each employee's future benefits to be paid at retirement is ...
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