Description: On June 30, 2015, the U.S. Tax Court reaffirmed the viability of the Investor Control Doctrine in Webber v. Commissioner. The case serves as a valuable example of what not to do with regard to the investment of assets supporting a variable life insurance contract purchased through a private placement transaction. In the end, however, the Webber court leaves a lot of questions unanswered—most significantly, the elusive answer to how to define investor control. This article examines the Investor Control Doctrine, as explained and applied by the U.S. Tax Court in Webber, and considers some of the open questions that remain after June 30, 2015.

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: This update column from ACLI the “General Explanations of the Administration’s Revenue Proposals for Fiscal Year 2022” (Green Book).

Description: This article provides a short history of the correction procedures previously developed to address compliance failures and the shortcomings of those procedures under sections 101f and 7702, laying the foundation for a sea change in the correction process.

Description: Current tax issues affecting the insurance industry, including the Inflation Reduction Act (Budget Reconciliation Bill)'s tax provisions, including the corporate minimum book income tax and share repurchase (or stock buyback) excise tax; the tax treatment of non coordinated benefits (also known as fixed indemnity benefits); and an update on the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project

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

Description: Provides information on Section 7702 mortality requirements, the implications of the adoption of the 2017 CSO tables and the need for IRS guidance.

Description: A discussion of the American Financial case in detail. Also includes background on what the statute requires and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s ruling and litigating positions.

Description: This article is a discussion of the proposal to tax the inside build-up in life insurance policies and the consequences if it were to be adopted.

Description: Updates on partial annuitization and exhanges, prevailing CSO valuation mortality tables, disclosure of offshore accounts through FATCA.