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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Information generated by the medical information bureau (MIB) and made available to member companies concerning medical information of applicants for life and health insurance. Member ...
Company not licensed by a particular state to sell and service insurance policies within that state. ...
Latin phrase meaning "beyond power or authority" describing an act by a corporation that exceeds its legal powers. For example, corporations do not have the authority to engage in the ...
Approved or accepted policy for a particular type of risk. The only type of risk covered by a standard form mandated by law is the fire policy. In 1886, New York adopted a standard fire ...
Insurance on the life of the employee, paid for by the company, with the company being the beneficiary under the policy. This insurance vehicle is being used more and more to fund ...
Entity maintained by the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association. The fund essentially serves college faculties and staff, who pay premiums through salary deductions toward a tax-sheltered ...
Measurement of the response of the cash flow of an insurance company to various interest rate scenarios; for example, how rising interest rates will affect the number of life insurance ...
Acquisition and employment of assets in order to maximize the return on these assets through: establishment of financial planning objectives; development of financial plans by which these ...
Additional amount of surplus generated by an additional amount of capital to be included in book value surplus. This additional surplus is necessary to act as a supplement to the statutory ...
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