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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Attachment to a property insurance policy to protect the interest of the mortgagee in the mortgaged property. If the property is damaged or destroyed, the mortgagee is indemnified up to his ...
Insurance company that sells property and casualty insurance only to industrial insureds. These companies are separately licensed and separately capitalized to market insurance to cover the ...
Surrender of rights by an insured against the third party to an insurance company that has paid a claim. ...
Type of policy with premiums that are fully paid up within a stated period. For example, a 20-payment life insurance policy has 20 annual premium payments, with no further premiums to be ...
Classification of occupations according to the degree of risk inherent in that occupation. ...
Insurance coverages for businesses, commercial institutions, and professional organizations, as contrasted with personal insurance. ...
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Historical mortality table that replaced the annuity table, 1949, used for the calculation of annuity rates with more-current mortality experience at that time. This table was subsequently ...
Limited pay whole life policy under which all premium payments have been made. For example, a 20 pay policy is completely paid for after 20 payments; no future premiums have to be made, and ...
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