Presented below is our summary of significant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and relevant tax matters for the week of August 26 – 30, 2019. August 26, 2019: The IRS released a Treasury Decision in which it issued...more
After an initial period of almost 30 years without significant regulatory guidance addressing the statutory exception for foreign insurance companies under the passive foreign investment company (PFIC) regime, the U.S....more
This past summer, the Texas legislature passed and the Governor signed a law that allows Texas insurers to negotiate reinsurance contracts with foreign reinsurers that do not require 100% collateral before the insurer can...more
In the most recent decision in an ongoing dispute between MF Global Holdings Ltd. and its (re)insurers, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Allied World to post a $15 million bond before the...more
On 9 August 2016, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC“) issued the Notice on Matters Relating to Collateral Provided by Offshore Reinsurers (Draft) (the “Draft Notice“) for public consultation. On 13 March 2017,...more
A five year agreement between the US and the EU standardizing certain requirements for foreign insurers was finalized and presented to Congress for 90 days of review and comment on January 13, 2017 after lengthy negotiations...more
On 4 January 2017 the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC“) published on its website the final version of the Measures on the Compliance Management of Insurance Companies (the “Compliance Measures“), which will...more
The European Insurance & Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its “Guidelines on the supervision of branches of third-country insurance undertakings“. The Guidelines are intended to ensure that...more
The last 15 years have seen the advent of a new reinsurance platform, where hedge funds have sponsored non-U.S. reinsurers, who in turn invest their capital in the sponsoring hedge funds. While there are business rationales...more
The Internal Revenue Service recently revoked a 2008 ruling that a 1% excise tax under section 4371(3) of the Internal Revenue Code applied to “reinsurance premiums paid by one foreign insurer or reinsurer to another.” The...more
In a diversity action based upon breach of a facultative reinsurance certificate, a New Hampshire federal court recently held that England’s six-year statute of limitations governed a cedent’s contract claim, rejecting the...more
On May 26, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a District Court decision and ruled that the Internal Revenue Service could not impose excise tax on certain wholly-foreign retrocessions...more
In late May, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment to a reinsurer in a dispute with the IRS regarding the imposition of U.S. excise taxes on a wholly...more
In April 24’s Federal Register, the IRS released proposed regulations (REG-108214-15) to restrict when a foreign insurance company’s income can be excluded as passive income by giving a more strict definition for the “active...more
On April 23, Treasury and the IRS issued proposed regulations interpreting the active insurance exception under the passive foreign investment company (PFIC) rules. Although the release of the proposed regulations did not...more