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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Means of funding permitted under the employee retirement income security act of 1974 (ERISA). The administrator of a pension plan can comply with required minimum funding standards by ...
Search, attraction, interview, and employment of insurance agents. This is a primary function of the general agent (GA) or agency manager. ...
Amount in a cash value life insurance policy that a policy owner will receive upon surrender of the policy, minus any outstanding loan and accrued interest. A table in the policy shows the ...
Coverage providing funds for maintenance of a business as closely to normal as possible in the event of a loss of a key person, owner, or partner. ...
Excess funds above the amount required to establish legal reserves for the policies in force. These excess funds are generated as the result of mortality savings, excess interest earned on ...
Same as term Unallocated Funding Instrument: pension funding agreement under which funds paid into a retirement plan are not currently allocated to purchase retirement benefits. The funds ...
Costs associated with the selling of a new insurance policy to a policyholder. The costs include the acquisition commission as a percentage of the first year's premium, underwriting ...
Insurance policy in force only after the insurance company approves the application. Today, most companies use the insurability conditional premium receipt. ...
Nonforfeiture option that uses the cash value of an ordinary life policy as a single premium to purchase term life insurance in the amount of the original policy. The length of the term ...
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