Description: High on the list of the most frequently asked questions by tax professionals working for life insurance companies is whether a change in reserving methodology or assumptions will be subject to the “10-year-spread” requirements of section 807f of the Internal Revenue Code. This article discusses possible answers.

Description: A look at the IRS initiative, the Industry Issue Resolution IIR Program, and its requested use to address the tax treatment of hedges of VA contract guarantees. The IIR Program is designed to address tax issues that are common to many business taxpayers and are frequently disputed.

Description: Discussion about the recent activities of the Taxation Section and its council and plans for the future. The project of the NPT [Necessary Premium Test] task force was discussed.

Description: The Tidbit summarizes LTRs 201609008 and 201613016 and discusses the definition of insurance under the tax code in light of these new pieces of guidance from the IRS.

Description: Recent guidance in the form of Rev. Proc. 2006- 13 provides a general safe harbor for the fair market value of a deferred-annuity contract when determining the amount includible in income on conversion of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.

Description: A discussion of how issuers and providers of IRAs and employer-provided qualified retirement plans need to consider all situations and possibly modify their administrative systems and/or procedures for purposes of administering the IRAs and plans in accordance with the RMD required minimum distribution rules.

Description: Last March, Congress passed and the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act followed by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which amended the former collectively, the “Act”. The article provides a brief background on the passage of the Act generally and the creation of the new Investment Income Tax in particular compares the existing provisions of the HI tax with the newly enacted provisions, and it then analyzes the import of the Investment Income Tax for annuities and, possibly, life insurance contracts. The article concludes with thoughts on the potential effect of the new tax on the annuity marketplace.

Description: Owners of nonqualified annuity contracts, individuals under qualified retirement plans, and annuity issuers are left without any published guidance on when annuity payments can be used to satisfy the SEPP [Substantially Equal Periodic Payments] exceptions to the 10 percent penalty tax under sections 72q2D and 72t2Aiv. This article discusses that problem. The insurance industry requested guidance on this issue.8

Description: On Aug. 11, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service IRS released Notice 2011-68,1 regarding the tax treatment of stand-alone and “combination” longtermcare LTC insurance products. The Notice provides interim guidance on certain issues and requests public comment on others. This article discusses that notice and taxation issues related to Long Term Care products, combination products and long term care riders to annuities.

Description: The interaction of section 7702 cash value accumulation test [CVAT] and state nonforfeiture laws [SNFL] create a dual limitation on traditional life insurance contratcs. CVAT limiting the maximum permissible cash value and SNFL requiring a minimum cash surrender value. This article examines these dual limitations.