If the fringe benefits of your job include employer-paid group term life insurance, a portion of the premiums for the coverage may be taxable. And that could result in undesirable income tax consequences for you.
The cost of the first $50,000 of group term life insurance paid by your employer is excluded from taxable income. But the employer-paid cost of coverage over $50,000 is taxable to you and included in the taxable wages reported on your Form W-2, even if you never actually receive any benefits from it. That’s called “phantom income.”