Description: Congress has acted in recent years to remove outdated provisions governing the federal income taxation of life insurance companies from the Internal Revenue Code. In particular, section 809 and section 815 were repealed and suspended, respectively, in 2004. This article chronicles the demise of these provisions and explains why Congress was right in removing them from the Code.

Description: An extensive look at Actuarial Guideline 38, "The Application of the Valuation of Life Insurance Policies Model Regulation."

Description: This article discusses the implications of a principle-based reserve PBR system with respect to federal income taxation of life insurance companies, particularly with respect to tax reserves and their deductibility for tax purposes. The article discusses potential problems with existing tax rules for reserve deduction, what courses of action the IRS could take, and suggestions for design features of a PBR approach that would make it more consistent with current tax rules. Life insurance product tax implications are also discussed.

Description: Insurance companies will be required to file the Internal Revenue Service IRS Schedule M-3 for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2006. Schedule M-3 was designed by the IRS as a replacement for the Schedule M-1, which is used to reconcile a corporation's financial accounting income or loss with its taxable income or loss.

Description: This article discusses two recent 2005 IRS private letter rulings that involved the meaning of “cash surrender value” as used under code section 7702, which defines a life insurance contract for federal income tax purposes.

Description: The article discusses court decisions on the tax basis and taxable gain in life insurance contracts.

Description: This article explores the complexities and potential problems with respect to tax reserves that could result from a retroactive application of a principle-based reserves PBR approach for life insurance reserves.

Description: Kory J. Olsen, Taxation Section chair, interviewed Walter Welsh, focusing on the ACLI, retirement issues, and insurance regulation.