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: The United States district court for the Southern District of Ohio recently issued its opinion in American Financial Group and Consolidated Subsidiaries v. United States. The issue in the case as framed by the Internal Revenue Service IRS was whether Actuarial Guideline XXXIII AG 33 applies retroactively or prospectively to the calculation of reserves for deferred annuity contracts. This article is a discussion of this opinion.

Description: This article summarizes IRS guidance on what constitutes a change in basis for computing life insurance reserves under the Internal Revenue Code.

Description: In PLR 202109001, the IRS ruled that a proposed assumption reinsurance transaction between related foreign parties changing the counter party obligated to a domestic corporation (“Taxpayer”) under an existing agreement did not give rise to Taxpayer being treated as making a base erosion payment (“BEP”), as Taxpayer did not receive a deduction under §832(b)(4)(A) from the amount of gross premiums written on insurance contracts during the taxable year for premiums paid for reinsurance.

Description: This is the September 2010 issue of the Taxation Section newsletter, Taxing Times.

Description: The PPACA imposed a market share-based health insurance provider fee, known as the "Section 9010 Fee", "Health Insurer Fee", or simply the "HIF", on each “covered entity” with net premiums written in excess of $25 million that is engaged in the business of providing health insurance coverage for U.S. health risks. This article provides background information to help unpack the language behind the Section 9010 Fee and highlights a few areas of special interest including merger and acquisition-related issues, application of the Section 9010 fee to expatriate plans, and considerations regarding fee administration.

Description: Update on section activities from the chairperson.

Description: Read the Chairperson's Corner from the June 2016 issue of Taxing Times by Jeffrey Stabach.

Description: This article discusses Internal Revue Code, ‘IRC,’ Sections 7702 and 7702A with respect to the implementation of the 2001 CSO Mortality Table, which must be used in the calculations for policies issued on or after January 1, 2006. “The insurance industry has requested guidance from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service on the proper application of the current computational rules to the 2001 CSO Mortality Table but, to date, such guidance has not been provided. Therefore, the Taxation Section established the 2001 CSO Maturity Age Task Force, the members of which authored this article, to propose methodologies that would be actuarially acceptable under Sections 7702 and 7702A of the Code for calculations under contracts that do not provide for actual maturity before age 100.” This article summarizes the task force recommendations.

Description: Summary of Administration's FY 2023 Tax Proposals of Interest to Life Insurers