Following the U.S. Congress’ lead, on April 10 the IRS issued final regulations under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. If the rules seemed unclear before, they are crystal clear now: Most of the so-called “419(e)” plans as well as the remaining 419A(f)(6) plans are in violation of the law and subject to hefty penalties.
Welfare Benefit Plans and 419 Plans Litigation - 412i, IRS Audit Experts for abusive insurance based plans deemed reportable or listed transactions by the IRS.
Captive Insurance And The IRS
ReplyDeleteThe IRS continues to heavily scrutinize captive insurance arrangements. Certain captive insurance types have consistently appeared, including in 2019, on the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams to avoid. Micro-captives in particular have been identified as potential vehicles for illegal tax shelters and the IRS is keen to crack down.
If the IRS believes that a captive insurance company is claiming deductions for non-insurance activities they will litigate. This includes going after captive insurance companies that are claiming unreasonable premium deductions. If the captive insurance company cannot show that they are distributing risk, selling insurance, shifting risk, or whether transactions involved insurance risk then that captive could be a target for the IRS.