Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax: Implications For Corporate-owned Life Insurance

Definition of "Corporate alternative minimum tax: implications for corporate-owned life insurance"

INSURANCE tax that exhibits direct impact on the book income preference. Beginning with the year 1990, the book income preference became equal to 75% of the excess of current adjusted earnings of the alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI). Book income preferences are affected by corporate-owned life insurance in the following situations:

  1. If the insured dies, the excess of the life insurance policy's DEATH BENEFIT over the CASH SURRENDER VALUE becomes book income to the corporation.
  2. If the insurance policy's annual premium exceeds the increase in the cash surrender value for a particular year, the result is a decline in the book income and thus a decline in the corporation's exposure to the alternative minimum tax (AMT).
  3. Conversely, if the insurance policy's cash surrender value exceeds the increase in the annual premium for a particular year, the result is an increase in the book income and thus an increase in the corporation's exposure to the alternative minimum tax.

Generally, if the corporation in any given year has taxable income, corporate-owned life insurance results in an alternative minimum tax liability if a significant death benefit is paid to the corporation upon the death of the insured. The result is that the alternative minimum tax will cause a reduction in the net death benefit from the life insurance policy paid to the corporation.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Insurance Terms

Provision that holds a re-insurer liable for its share of losses even if the ceding company becomes insolvent before paying these losses. For example, XYZ Insurance Co. writes a fire policy ...

Canadian retirement plan much like U.S. individual retirement account (IRA). Here, an employee can contribute on a tax deductible basis C $3500 each year as a member of an employer pension ...

Buying a home or investing in a commercial property in the United States implies complex legal clauses. Perhaps one of the most perplexing ones is the noncontribution mortgage clause. If ...

Forced entry into premises. Coverage is provided under various property insurance contracts such as homeowners and special multiperil insurance (SMP). ...

Protection to maintain the value of a business in case of death or disability of a partner. Upon the death or long-term disability of a partner, insurance can provide for the transfer of a ...

Type of derivative traded on the Chicago Board of Trade that takes the form of an option on a catastrophe futures contract using a call-option spread as the basis for the contract. The ...

Plan initiated by the pension benefit guaranty corporation (PBGC) upon the involuntary termination of a pension plan. With the concurrence of the United States District Court, the PBGC ...

Automatic protection for an insurer against losses that exceed a predetermined loss limit. This reinsurance may be subdivided into three primary types: excess of loss, catastrophe loss, and ...

Form that provides insurance coverage for the insured in the event the damage or destruction of non-owned property reduces or terminates the insured's earnings. For example, if the insured ...

Popular Insurance Questions