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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Element used to adjust losses to reflect the incurred but not reported claim (IBNR) under the retrospective method of rating. ...
Unsecured bond. The only protection for the lender is the credit and reputation of the borrower. The method of evaluating the quality of debentures is to analyze the earning power, overall ...
Unallocated funding instrument for pension plans under which premiums are placed on deposit, and are not currently allocated to the purchase of benefits for the employee. At retirement, an ...
Activities of interest in underwriting an application for life insurance to determine the rate classification (premium) for the applicant. For example, a sky diver is at greater personal ...
Term used for a general class of insurance such as life insurance, property insurance, or workers compensation insurance. ...
Use of new rate structures by an insurance company without first obtaining approval of a State Insurance Department. ...
Paid-in surplus, revaluation surplus, and donated surplus. This surplus includes all sources of surplus with the exception of earned surplus. ...
Provision for known claims due but not paid, known claims not yet due, and provision for incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims. The critical problem facing a casualty insurance company is ...
Law in some states that permits an insurance company to deny payment of a claim resulting from an insured loss because of breach of warranty or misrepresentation, provided that the breach ...
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