Is Life Insurance going over the (Fiscal) Cliff? [UPDATED]

Maybe:

"The potential elimination of many tax preferences currently afforded life insurance is one facet of today�s fiscal cliff discussions ... proposals include provisions that could result in the imposition of taxes and elimination of deductions for both individual and corporate-owned life insurance policies"

More ominously, the two primary tax benefits of life insurance - tax-advantaged build-up of cash values and tax-free death claims - are also under fire. This makes sense: why should responsible people gain an advantage over those who plan to fail fail to plan?

Gee, I'm just full of good news today, aren't I?

ADDENDUM: Jeff Root has an interesting post about life insurance and buy-sell arrangements, how they're used and how they work. It occurs to me that taxing the death death benefit in those situations could create a triple-whammy: the premiums aren't deductible, the death benefit would be taxable, and there may well be taxes on the transaction (sale of the business interest) as well.

Ouch!

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