Insurance companies.
Insurance companies.
(1) Insurance companies include both stock and mutual companies, as well as mutual benefit insurance companies. A voluntary unincorporated association of employees formed for the purpose of relieving sick and aged members and the dependents of deceased members is an insurance company, whether the fund for such purpose is created wholly by membership dues or partly by contributions from the employer. A corporation which merely sets aside a fund for the insurance of its employees is not required to file a separate return for such fund, but the income therefrom shall be included in the return of the corporation.
(2) Though its name, charter powers, and subjection to State insurance laws are significant in determining the business which a corporation is authorized and intends to carry on, the character of the business actually done in the taxable year determines whether it is taxable as an insurance company under the Code. For example, during the year 1954 the M Corporation, incorporated under the insurance laws of the State of R, carried on the business of lending money in addition to guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest of mortgage loans. Of its total income for the year, one-third was derived from its insurance business of guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest of mortgage loans and two-thirds was derived from its noninsurance business of lending money. The M Corporation is not an insurance company for the year 1954 within the meaning of the Code and the regulations thereunder.