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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Person (the transferee to whom the property is transferred) who is at least two generations younger than the person (the transferor) who is transferring the property. This type of property ...
Period allowed an insured to notify an insurer of loss. Many policies require immediate written notice, or notice as soon as practicable. Different types of policies have their own time ...
Program through which employees purchase individual life insurance and disability income insurance by having the employer reduce their income by the required insurance premium. Since the ...
Insurance policy, particularly property and liability insurance, which the owner cannot assign to a third party. ...
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Attachment of decreasing term life insurance to an ordinary life policy to provide monthly income to a beneficiary if death occurs during a specified period. If the insured dies after the ...
Same as term Close Corporation Plan: prior arrangement for surviving stockholders to purchase shares of a deceased stockholder according to a predetermined formula for setting the value of ...
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