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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Those claims that arise when two or more property and casualty insurance companies have coverage on a loss. Which company then owes which portion of the claim must be determined. ...
Method of depreciating an asset in which its useful life is divided into an appropriate number of years (or other periods), the final salvage value is deducted, and the asset is written off ...
Actuarial method of crediting retirement benefits earned and the costs associated with these earned retirement benefits. An increment (unit) of benefit is credited for each year of ...
Government reinsurance program that provided coverage for U.S. properties during World War II. Private insurers shared the first layer of coverage, with the government providing ...
Additions of new entrants into an employee benefit insurance plan. ...
Coverage through an endorsement to the personal automobile policy (pap) to extend its protection against accidents within a 25 mile radius of the U.S. border. This coverage is excess over ...
Organization of home service debit life insurance companies and combination companies. ...
Projected percentage of the earned premiums that will be required by the insurance company to pay for the incurred losses plus the loss adjustment expense. ...
Confirmation by an insurance company of the acts of its agent, regardless of whether or not these acts were committed within the limit of authority granted the agent by the company. By so ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.