Feature: Tax experts mull Revenue rulings on settlements

Van Brunt agreed, calling it "weird" that the IRS provided for a different tax result from a surrender than it did from selling a policy.

On the other hand, Rev. Rul. 2009-14 has some good results for the life settlement side, so the IRS may have been trying to appease both sides, Van Brunt added. The ruling holds that capital gain treatment is possible if the holding period of one year were satisfied, he said, noting that capital gain treatment provides lower tax rates than for ordinary income.

It is not entirely clear that there was a sound legal basis for the IRS decision to reduce the tax basis of a life settlement by the cost of insurance, Van Brunt said. On that point, he said, "If there's a taxpayer willing to take on the IRS, there'd be a fair amount of support from the life settlement industry."

The IRS ruling leaves it up to the policy holder to figure out what the cost of insurance charges are and to compute the tax basis, and that can be difficult, Van Brunt added. For universal life policies, he noted, the carrier reports the COI charges to the policyholder, who thus can tabulate the tax basis before selling the policy. For policies other than UL, however, it's not clear how cooperative insurers would be in reporting the COI.

"For non-UL policies, the cost of insurance is almost impossible to calculate," Van Brunt said. "It's very likely the policyholder has no real data on what the COIs are. He's going to be stuck with making a best guess. It's a case of a rule that gives no practical way to follow it."

Pete Ritter, a tax partner with O'Melveny & Myers pointed out that the rules take effect August 26, 2009 and won't apply to life settlements concluded before then for taxpayers who claimed a full tax basis for premiums paid.

This suggests that insureds thinking of selling may want to sell before that date. Moreover, those buying policies through premium finance programs using nonrecourse loans may be wise to unwind the loan before that date, Ritter said.

Ruling 2009-14 appears to have its primary impact on foreign investors who have acquired life insurance policies from Americans and expect to receive the death benefits, speakers observed.

"The rule effectively forces them to structure themselves to eliminate the U.S. withholding tax," Moritz said. "They can't simply organize themselves in Cayman Island or wherever and elect to receive death benefits without having to pay income taxes. Now they have to be careful about withholding."