(a) In general. This section provides rules that apply when an election under section 338 is made for a target that is an insurance company. The rules in this section apply in addition to those generally applicable upon the making of an election under section 338. In the case of a conflict between the provisions of this section and other provisions of the Internal Revenue Code or regulations, the rules set forth in this section determine the Federal income tax treatment of the parties and the transaction when a section 338 election is made for an insurance company target.

(b) Computation of ADSP and AGUB—(1) Reserves taken into account as a liability. Old target's tax reserves are the reserves for Federal income tax purposes for any insurance, annuity, and reinsurance contracts deemed sold by old target to new target in the deemed asset sale. The amount of old target's tax reserves is the amount that is properly taken into account by old target for the contracts at the close of the taxable year that includes the deemed sale tax consequences (before giving effect to the deemed asset sale and assumption reinsurance transaction). Old target's tax reserves are a liability of old target taken into account in determining ADSP under §1.338-4 and a liability of new target taken into account in determining AGUB under §1.338-5.

(2) Allocation of ADSP and AGUB to specific insurance contracts. For purposes of allocating AGUB and ADSP under §§1.338-6 and 1.338-7, the fair market value of a specific insurance, reinsurance or annuity contract or group of insurance, reinsurance or annuity contracts (insurance contracts) is the amount of the ceding commission a willing reinsurer would pay a willing ceding company in an arm's length transaction for the reinsurance of the contracts if the gross reinsurance premium for the contracts were equal to old target's tax reserves for the contracts. See §1.197-2(g)(5) for rules concerning the treatment of the amount allocable to insurance contracts acquired in the deemed asset sale.

(c) Application of assumption reinsurance principles—(1) In general. If a target is an insurance company, the deemed sale of insurance contracts is treated for Federal income tax purposes as an assumption reinsurance transaction between old target, as the reinsured or ceding company, and new target, as the reinsurer or acquiring company, at the close of the acquisition date. The Federal income tax treatment of the assumption reinsurance transaction is determined under the applicable provisions of subchapter L, chapter 1, subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code, as modified by the rules set forth in this section.

(2) Reinsurance premium. Old target is deemed to pay a gross amount of premium in the assumption reinsurance transaction equal to the amount of old target's tax reserves for the insurance contracts that are acquisition date assets (acquired contracts). New target is deemed to receive a reinsurance premium in the amount of old target's tax reserves for the acquired contracts. See paragraph (d) of this section for circumstances in which new target is deemed to receive additional premium. See §1.817-4(d)(2) for old target's and new target's treatment of the premium.

(3) Ceding commission. Old target is deemed to receive a ceding commission in an amount equal to the amount of ADSP allocated to the acquired contracts, as determined under §§1.338-6 and 1.338-7 and paragraph (b) of this section. New target is deemed to pay a ceding commission in an amount equal to the amount of AGUB allocated to the acquired contracts, as determined under §§1.338-6 and 1.338-7 and paragraph (b) of this section. See §1.817-4(d)(2) for old target's and new target's treatment of the ceding commission.

(4) Examples. The following examples illustrate this paragraph (c):

(d) Reserve increases by new target after the deemed asset sale—(1) In general. If in new target's first taxable year or any subsequent year, new target increases its reserves for any acquired contracts, new target is treated as receiving an additional premium, which is computed under paragraph (d)(3) of this section, in the assumption reinsurance transaction described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section. New target includes the additional premium in gross income for the taxable year in which new target increases its reserves for acquired contracts. New target's increase in reserves for the insurance contracts acquired in the deemed asset sale is a liability of new target not originally taken into account in determining AGUB that is subsequently taken into account. Thus, AGUB is increased by the amount of the additional premium included in new target's gross income. See §§1.338-5(b)(2)(ii) and 1.338-7. Old target has no deduction under this paragraph (d) and makes no adjustments under §§1.338-4(b)(2)(ii) and 1.338-7.

(2) Exceptions. New target is not treated as receiving additional premium under paragraph (d)(1) of this section if—

(i) It is under state receivership as of the close of the taxable year for which the increase in reserves occurs; or

(ii) It is required by section 807(f) to spread the reserve increase over the 10 succeeding taxable years.

(3) Amount of additional premium—(i) In general. The additional premium taken into account under this paragraph (d) is an amount equal to the sum of the positive amounts described in paragraphs (d)(3)(ii) and (d)(3)(iii) of this section. However, the additional premium cannot exceed the limitation described in paragraph (d)(4) of this section.

(ii) Increases in unpaid loss reserves. The positive amount with respect to unpaid loss reserves is computed using the formula A/B × (C−[D + E]) where—

(A) A equals old target's discounted unpaid losses (determined under section 846) included in AGUB under paragraph 11(b)(1) of this section;

(B) B equals old target's undiscounted unpaid losses (determined under section 846(b)(1)) as of the close of the acquisition date;

(C) C equals new target's undiscounted unpaid losses (determined under section 846(b)(1)) at the end of the taxable year that are attributable to losses incurred by old target on or before the acquisition date;

(D) D (which may be a negative number) equals old target's undiscounted unpaid losses as of the close of the acquisition date, reduced by the cumulative amount of losses, loss adjustment expenses, and reinsurance premiums paid by new target through the end of the taxable year for losses incurred by old target on or before the acquisition date; and

(E) E equals the amount obtained by dividing the cumulative amount of reserve increases taken into account under this paragraph (d) in prior taxable years by A/B.

(iii) Increases in other reserves. The positive amount with respect to reserves other than discounted unpaid loss reserves is the net increase of those reserves due to changes in estimate, methodology, or other assumptions used to compute the reserves (including the adoption by new target of a methodology or assumptions different from those used by old target).

(4) Limitation on additional premium. The additional premium taken into account by new target under paragraph (d)(1) of this section is limited to the excess, if any, of—

(i) The fair market value of old target's assets acquired by new target in the deemed asset sale (other than Class VI and Class VII assets); over

(ii) The AGUB allocated to those assets (including increases in AGUB allocated to those assets as the result of reserve increases by new target in prior taxable years).

(5) Treatment of additional premium under section 848. If a portion of the positive amounts described in paragraphs (d)(3)(ii) and (iii) of this section are attributable to an increase in reserves for specified insurance contracts (as defined in section 848(e)), new target takes an allocable portion of the additional premium in determining its specified policy acquisition expenses under section 848(c) for the taxable year of the reserve increase.

(6) Examples. The following examples illustrate this paragraph (d):

(7) Effective/applicability date—(i) In general. This section applies to increases to reserves made by new target after a deemed asset sale occurring on or after April 10, 2006.

(ii) Application to pre-effective date increases to reserves. If either new target makes an election under §1.338(i)-1(c)(2) or old target makes an election under §1.338(i)-1(c)(3) to apply the rules of this section, in whole, to a qualified stock purchase occurring before April 10, 2006, then the rules contained in this section shall apply in whole to the qualified stock purchase.

(e) Effect of section 338 election on section 846(e) election—(1) In general. New target and old target are treated as the same corporation for purposes of an election by old target to use its historical loss payment pattern under section 846(e). See §1.338-1(b)(2)(vii). Therefore, if old target has a section 846(e) election in effect on the acquisition date, new target will continue to use the historical loss payment pattern of old target to discount unpaid losses incurred in accident years covered by the election, unless new target elects to revoke the section 846(e) election. In addition, new target may consider old target's historical loss payment pattern when determining whether to make the section 846(e) election for a determination year that includes or is subsequent to the acquisition date.

(2) Revocation of existing section 846(e) election. New target may revoke old target's section 846(e) election to use its historical loss payment pattern to discount unpaid losses. If new target elects to revoke old target's section 846(e) election, new target will use the industry-wide patterns determined by the Secretary to discount unpaid losses incurred in accident years beginning on or after the acquisition date through the subsequent determination year. New target may revoke old target's section 846(e) election by attaching a statement to new target's original tax return for its first taxable year.

(f) Effect of section 338 election on old target's capitalization amounts under section 848—(1) Determination of net consideration for specified insurance contracts. For purposes of applying section 848 and §1.848-2(f) to the deemed assumption reinsurance transaction, old target's net consideration (either positive or negative) for each category of specified insurance contracts is an amount equal to—

(i) The allocable portion of the ceding commission (if any) relating to contracts in that category; less

(ii) The amount by which old target's tax reserves for contracts in that category has been reduced as a result of the deemed assumption reinsurance transaction.

(2) Determination of capitalization amount. Except as provided in §1.381(c)(22)-1(b)(13)—

(i) If, after the deemed asset sale, old target has an amount otherwise required to be capitalized under section 848 for the taxable year or an unamortized balance of specified policy acquisition expenses from prior taxable years, then old target deducts such remaining amount or unamortized balance as an expense incurred in the taxable year that includes the deemed sale tax consequences; and

(ii) If, after the deemed asset sale, the negative capitalization amount resulting from the reinsurance transaction exceeds the amount that old target can deduct under section 848(f)(1), then old target's capitalization amount is treated as zero at the close of the taxable year that includes the deemed sale tax consequences.

(3) Section 381 transactions. For transactions described in section 381, see §1.381(c)(22)-1(b)(13).

(g) Effect of section 338 election on policyholders surplus account. Except as specifically provided in §1.381(c)(22)-1(b)(7), the deemed asset sale effects a distribution of old target's policyholders surplus account to the extent the grossed-up amount realized on the sale to the purchasing corporation of the purchasing corporation's recently purchased target stock (as defined in §1.338-4(c)) exceeds old target's shareholders surplus account under section 815(c).

(h) Effect of section 338 election on section 847 special estimated tax payments. If old target had elected to claim an additional deduction under section 847 for the taxable year that includes the deemed sale tax consequences or any earlier years, the amount remaining in old target's special loss discount account under section 847(3) must be reduced to the extent it relates to contracts transferred to new target and the amount of such reduction must be included in old target's gross income for the taxable year that includes the deemed sale tax consequences. Old target may apply the balance of its special estimated tax account as a credit against any tax resulting from such inclusion in gross income. Any special estimated tax payments remaining after this credit are voided and, therefore, are not available for credit or refund. Under section 847(1), new target is permitted to claim a section 847 deduction for losses incurred before the deemed asset sale, subject to the general requirement that new target makes timely special estimated tax payments equal to the tax benefit resulting from this deduction. See §1.381(c)(22)-1(c)(14) regarding the carryover of the special loss discount account attributable to contracts transferred in a section 381 transaction.

[T.D. 9257, 71 FR 18000, Apr. 10, 2006, as amended by T.D. 9377, 73 FR 3872, Jan. 23, 2008]