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 The 1982 code decreed that any money withdrawn from an annuity would be considered income first and would therefore be taxable.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
Statement by an auditor or certified public accountant indicating if a company's financial statements fairly present its true financial condition. A statement of opinion may be unqualified, ...
Group that, with the exception of the government, establishes the standards for all financial accounting and reporting for the various entities in the United States. The standards enable ...
Statutory liabilities minus the interest MAINTENANCE RESERVE minus the ASSET VALUATION RESERVE. ...
Provision that covers a business to be protected under a reinsurance treaty. The class either can appear at the beginning of the agreement or may be included in the retention and limits ...
Amount expressed as a liability on the insurance company's balance sheet for benefits owed to policy owners. These reserves must be maintained according to strict actuarial formulas as they ...
Life insurance policy given by a donor to a charity; donor only relinquishes the cash value and the cost of the premiums previously paid. The receiving charity's future value of the life ...
Time interval between the date benefits end under Social Security and the date these benefits resume. For example, survivor benefits are paid only as long as the parent (if less than age ...
Action by the owner of a cash value policy to relinquish it for its cash surrender value. Since the depression of the 1930s, companies have reserved the right to delay payment of a cash ...
Means of borrowing at no charge by a policyowner under universal life insurance policies. ...
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