Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Digital Repository @ Maurer Law Articles by Maurer Faculty Faculty Scholarship 1985 Taxing Personal Insurance: The Case of Tax Audit Insurance William D. Popkin Indiana University Maurer School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub Part of the Insurance Law Commons, Taxation-Federal Commons, and the Tax Law Commons Recommended Citation Popkin, William D., "Taxing Personal Insurance: The Case of Tax Audit Insurance" (1985). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 940. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/940 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by Maurer Faculty by an authorized administrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. TAXING PERSONAL INSURANCE: THE CASE OF TAX AUDIT INSURANCE William D. Popkin* A recent brochure explaining tax audit insurance' to tax practi- tioners warns that "[e]ven the most meticulously prepared returns are subject to questions about the adequacy or propriety of the documentation and substantiation which the client has accumu- lated and maintained" and that there is "added uncertainty as to how courts will decide complicated provisions."2 Thus warned, tax- payers are expected to find tax audit insurance, which reimburses policyholders for tax deficiences and, in some cases, professional fees, attractive. From the insurance company's viewpoint, tax audit insurance is economically feasible because the company can aggre- gate the statistical probabilities that particular taxpayers will be audited and spread the costs over a large number of insured taxpayers.' Before acquiring this new type of insurance, taxpayers must pay careful attention to how the proceeds and premiums will be taxed.