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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Deleveraging of the insurance company's balance sheet. ...
Policy that generates a savings element. Cash values are critical to a permanent life insurance policy. The size of a cash value buildup differs substantially from company to company. In ...
transfer of money from or an employer-sponsored pension or other qualified plan into an INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNT (IRA) with out paying tax on the distribution. transfer of money from ...
Management tool through which a plan for evaluation, measurement, and improvement is implemented. The insurance entity can use this tool to analyze market trends, measure sales performance, ...
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When we are young, we usually don’t take our retirement seriously and don’t even know the definition of an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). We become more preoccupied with ...
Insurance coverage that protects a contractor or other type of business providing a service for expenses incurred in the event a contract is not ratified by a foreign government. For ...
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