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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Right of survivors to the interest in property of a deceased joint tenant as the result of property held in joint tenancy. ...
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Policy that combines life insurance coverage on two lives and pays policy proceeds on the second person's death with the accumulation potential of an underlying variable investment ...
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Net cost of insurance with no markup to cover an intermediary's profit or expenses. An intermediary, such as a broker, sells an insurance product net; that is, there is no loading for his ...
Retirement plan in which money is currently allocated to fund an employees' pension. ...
Clause requiring an insured to cooperate with an insurance company by producing all evidence requested in settlement of a claim. The company may have difficulty settling a claim without the ...
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