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: 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: 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Description: Congress has acted in recent years to remove outdated provisions governing the federal income taxation of life insurance companies from the Internal Revenue Code. In particular, section 809 and section 815 were repealed and suspended, respectively, in 2004.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.