Business-Owned Life Insurance: More Data Could Be Useful in	 
Making Tax Policy Decisions (13-MAY-04, GAO-04-303).		 
                                                                 
Business-owned life insurance is permanent insurance held by	 
employers on the lives of their employees, and the employer is	 
the beneficiary of these policies. Its attractive features,	 
common to all permanent life insurance, generally include both	 
tax-deferred accumulation of earnings on the policies' cash value
and tax-free receipt of the death benefit. Legislators have	 
expressed concerns about the ability of employers to receive	 
tax-favored treatment from insuring their employees' lives. GAO  
was asked to discuss (1) the prevalence and use of business-owned
life insurance, (2) federal and state regulation and oversight of
these policies, and (3) the potential usefulness of and costs	 
associated with obtaining more comprehensive data on		 
business-owned life insurance.					 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-04-303 					        
    ACCNO:   A09988						        
  TITLE:     Business-Owned Life Insurance: More Data Could Be Useful 
in Making Tax Policy Decisions					 
     DATE:   05/13/2004 
  SUBJECT:   Data collection					 
	     Federal taxes					 
	     Financial analysis 				 
	     Private sector					 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Tax administration 				 
	     Life insurance					 
	     Insurance regulation				 
	     Federal/state relations				 
	     Fringe benefits					 
	     Business records					 
	     Tax incentives					 
	     Government/business relations