On December 13, 2018, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued two sets of proposed regulations of importance to insurance companies. One set was the long-awaited regulations...more
12/21/2018
/ Banks ,
Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Corporate Taxes ,
FATCA ,
Insurance Industry ,
IRS ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Rates ,
U.S. Treasury
On December 13, 2018, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued proposed regulations under section 59A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, commonly referred to as...more
On October 16, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Rev. Proc. 2018-54, which addresses the treatment of a new mortgage-backed security under the diversification rules of IRC § 817(h). This new security, called a...more
On August 21, 2017, the Tax Court issued its opinion in two companion cases Benyamin Avrahami and Orna Avrahami v. Commissioner, and Feedback Insurance Company, Ltd. v. Commissioner, 149 T.C. No. 7, holding against the...more
On October 19, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an advance version of Notice 2016-63, addressing the “reasonable mortality charge” requirement under IRC §§ 7702 and 7702A for life insurance contracts based on the...more
On May 5, 2016, the IRS issued Notice 2016-32, 2016-21 I.R.B. 1, which affords relief with respect to the application of the diversification requirements of IRC § 817(h) to variable life insurance and annuity contracts...more
On June 30, the Tax Court released Webber v. Commissioner, 144 T.C. No.17, in which the court upheld and applied the principles set forth in the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “investor control” rulings, concluding that for...more
On April 10, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released PLR 201515001 (Oct. 10, 2014), favorably addressing a “taxable annuity”—essentially, a deferred annuity contract supported, in part, by subaccounts, each of which...more
On February 2, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2016 budget (FY 2016 Budget). The hallmarks of the FY 2016 Budget are proposals that would impose (i) a minimum tax on the current foreign earnings of U.S....more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Treasury (Treasury) have issued final regulations under section 162(m)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code), which limit the deduction certain...more
The Treasury and the IRS offered two pieces of highly anticipated guidance on July 18 that are particularly relevant to the life insurance industry. ...more
7/24/2014
/ Bonds ,
Capital Losses ,
Corporate Bonds ,
Federal Taxes ,
Final Guidance ,
Hedges ,
Insurance Industry ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Variable Annuities
More than four years after Congress enacted the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010, Pub. L. 111-147, which added the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) provisions to the Internal Revenue Code, FATCA...more
On May 8, the IRS issued Rev. Rul. 2014-15, 2014-22 I.R.B. 1, which provides guidance in the rapidly expanding area of insuring or reinsuring employee benefits with captives. ...more
Pursuant to Notice 2014-33 (the Notice), the IRS announced that it will treat calendar years 2014 and 2015 as a transition period for the administration and enforcement of the due diligence, reporting, and withholding...more
On March 4, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2015 budget (FY 2015 Budget). In keeping with the Administration’s past budgets, the FY 2015 Budget includes a number of tax proposals that target insurance...more
On February 26, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) released a “Discussion Draft” of the Tax Reform Act of 2014, which sets forth his much-anticipated tax reform proposals. Of note, the Discussion...more
On February 4, the IRS issued a new revenue ruling – Rev. Rul. 2014-7 – that indicates that the IRS no longer plans to issue formal guidance concerning the treatment of the dividends-received deduction (DRD) with respect to...more
On February 5, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued its opinion in Validus Reinsurance, Ltd. v. United States, which is the first case to involve a challenge to the IRS’s position on the “cascading”...more
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick released his proposed FY 2015 budget on January 22, 2014. The proposed budget includes a tax provision that is targeted directly at the licensed insurance industry. Currently, income...more
On January 14, the United States Tax Court issued a reviewed opinion in Rent-A-Center Inc. v. Commissioner, 142 T.C. 1 (2014), which held that subsidiaries of Rent-A-Center Inc. (RAC) were entitled to claim deductions for...more
1/20/2014
On August 29, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, jointly announced the issuance of Revenue Ruling...more
The good news is that, under the recently released Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations, most non-U.S. property and casualty (P&C) insurance and reinsurance companies will not be considered foreign financial...more
On April 10, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2014 budget (FY 2014 Budget). Of note, the FY 2014 Budget includes a number of tax proposals that target insurance companies or that otherwise would have a direct...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released proposed regulations on the health insurer fee under section 9010 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The regulations, which were published in the Federal...more