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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Life insurance company that sells life insurance and annuities to the faculty and staff of colleges and universities. Its TIAA-CREF Tax-Sheltered Annuity (TSA) uses a traditional fixed ...
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Factors influencing the amount of life insurance to purchase, such as marketable skills of spouse, age of children, savings, investments, number of future working years' expectancy, amount ...
Professional designation earned after the successful completion of three national examinations given by the insurance institute of America (IIA). Covers such areas of expertise as ...
Same as term Extended Coverage Endorsement: added to an insurance policy or a clause found in an insurance policy that will provide additional coverage for risks to be insured other than ...
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Size of the losses used as a factor in calculating premium rates. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics studies the number of days lost by injured employees per million ...
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