Description: This article reviews the definition of “cash surrender value” in section 7702f2A and in the regulations proposed under that provision but never finalized. The discussion then recaps the 2005 Rulings and describes the recently issued letter rulings.

Description: A discussion of the proposed safe harbor with respect to calculations for contracts where the insured reaches age 100.

Description: On Nov. 2, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Technical Advice Memorandum 201844009 (the TAM).

Description: Many life insurance companies that issue participating policies follow business practices that they argue allow them a deduction for tax purposes for policyholder dividends in the year prior to actual payment. This article discusses several recent developments related to policyholder dividend accruals, including Revenue Ruling 2011-29 and the New York Life and MassMutual cases, and highlights the four arguments commonly made by the IRS in challenging companies' claimed tax treatment of such dividends.

Description: The Internal Revenue Service issued its seminal ruling interpreting Internal Revenal Code section 7702A[c][3][B][i], commonly referred to as the Necessary Premium Test [NPT]. The purpose of the NPT is to shelter certain death benefit increases from material change status, avoiding the 7 pay test's reapplication on their account.

Description: The author uses a reprint of an article from the very first edition of the “News from the Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Product Development Section” and assistance from the Taxation Section Council and Friends of that Council to decipher the changes between the life insurance tax environment back in the 1980s compared to today.

Description: The traditional defined-benefit (DB) plan is a type of plan structured to provide the greatest degree of retirement income security, designed to pay out a guaranteed retirement income for the life of the retiree (and, when applicable, a beneficiary). However, over the last several decades, the number of private-sector employees covered under these traditional plans has decreased dramatically and been replaced by defined contribution (DC) plans. In contrast, public-sector retirement plans, which are exempt from ERISA, have seen a much smaller decline in DB plans. There are many differences in the private and public sector that likely contributed to this phenomenon, but ERISA and the many amendments to it has been a major factor.

Description: Over the past few years, the Internal Revenue Service has issued two private letter rulings waiving the failure of certain fixed-premium universal life insurance FPUL contracts to satisfy the guideline premium test GPT under section 7702 of the Internal Revenue Code [see PLR 200328027 Apr. 10, 2003 and PLR 200230037 Apr. 30, 2002].

Description: This article summarizes the government guidance for protected cells in the insurance context and the ABA Recommendation, and comments on the Notice and ABA Recommendation in light of traditional notions of equity ownership for federal corporate income tax purposes.

Description: A discussion of new IRS rulings with respect to the taxation of life settlement transactions.