Description: This article examines a recent Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM 201149021) in which the IRS concluded that residual value insurance was not insurance for tax purposes. The article questions the TAM's analysis and argues that the accounting regime applied produced a distortion in the insurer's income.

Description: This article comments on a 1972 paper on the same subject by John Fraser, which made a very careful analysis of the relation between the current earnings rate and the taxable interest. The author builds on Fraser’s illustrative calculations, which showed clearly that there was an optimal spread between the current earnings rate and the assumed reserve interest rate to produce the maximum interest deduction, by including an analysis of the after-tax yield effect.

Description: This article discusses XXX reserve financing, one of the most common life insurance industry capital markets funding transactions.

Description: An interview with William J. Wilkins, Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service and the Assistant General Counsel in the Department of the Treasury.

Description: In September 2009, the Internal Revenue Service IRS released a private letter ruling PLR 200939018 June 18, 2009 addressing a contract in which the right to receive annuity payments and otherwise access a contract’s cash value is contingent upon the annuitant living to a specified age. The ruling holds that the contract is an annuity contract for purposes of section 72 of the Code. This article reviews the specifics of the ruling.

Description: A discussion of the three private letter rulings addressing the tax treatment of group insurance contingent annuity contracts providing guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits linked to an investment account released by the Internal Revenue Service.

Description: An explanation of the reasons why the IRS should rule on the application of section 351 to the transfer of assets and reserves in an indemnity coinsurance transaction where the ceding company transfers more assets to the assuming company than it would in an arms-length transaction and, therefore, the ceding company actually receives or is deemed to receive stock in the exchange for the transferred assets including the value of insurance in force. We also will summarize other interesting rulings in the PLR.

Description: The Internal Revenue Code includes certain rules that apply when a taxpayer has a change in method of accounting. A special rule applies when a life insurance company changes its basis of computing reserves. The article discusses two recent court cases, Bosamia v. Commissioner and Capital One Financial Corp. v. Commissioner, that address change-in-method-of-accounting issues. The article examines whether and how the courts' conclusions in these two cases might apply to changes in basis of computing reserves to correct errors.

Description: In the environment of discussions about simplifying the tax code for individuals including eliminating many deductions, this editorial raises the question of the appropriateness of eliminating some of the tax benefits of employer benefit plans.

Description: After the 1986 tax-reform legislation, SPWL currently enjoys a tax treatment preferential to many other financial products. The author suggests that this distinction may not last long.