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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Section of the Internal Revenue Code that provides for the taking of the proceeds from one life insurance policy or annuity and the reinvesting of these proceeds immediately in another life ...
Property to be insured, or that is insured, which is located within the specific geographical region falling under the auspices of the fire department. ...
Interest rate credited on three-month United States Treasury bills. ...
Common element in property insurance that excludes electrical damage or destruction of an appliance unless the damage is caused by a resultant fire. ...
Life insurance policy option under which the dividends that have accrued may be applied to mature the policy as endowment insurance. ...
Same as term: engineering approach; human approach ...
Variable-rate bonds whose coupon and value increases as interest rates decrease. ...
worth of each accumulation unit at the end of each valuation period for a variable annuity. This value is similar to that of the net asset value for a mutual fund. ...
First historical mortality table used for the calculation of premium rates for group annuities. This table was subsequently replaced by the group annuity table, 1971. ...
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