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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
An exception to section 101 (a) (1) OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE tax-exempt Status Of the DEATH BENEFIT in a life insurance policy where the transfer of the interest in the policy by the ...
Insurance company that does not utilize the rates and policies of a rating bureau. ...
Policy that pays a fixed dollar amount for each day the insured is confined to the hospital. This method of payment is in contrast with most other medical expense insurance that reimburses ...
Capacity of parties to an insurance contract to understand the meanings of their action in order for the contract to be valid. ...
Employer's obligation to fund a pension plan for the time period when employees were qualified to participate but the plan was not yet established. For example, a pension plan is ...
Record of losses, whether or not insured. This record is used in predicting future losses and in developing premium rates based on expectation of insured losses. ...
Special type of charitable remainder trust (CRT) under which a designated beneficiary (cannot be a charitable beneficiary) receives an annual fixed income. The grantor of the trust is ...
Insured, or an applicant for insurance, with lower expectation of incurring a loss than the standard applicant. For example, an applicant for life insurance who does not smoke can usually ...
Life insurance under which an insured receives the face value of a policy if the individual survives the endowment period. If the insured does not survive, a beneficiary receives the face ...
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