Congress enacted IRC section 106 to make employer health premiums tax-free.

Evidence

There was some conflict among IRS policy as to whether health insurance was tax-free. Although prior rulings suggested that premiums paid by employers would be considered tax-free to the employee, in 1953 the IRS reversed itself and ruled those amounts would be taxable income. Within a year Congress overturned the IRS ruling and enacted Internal Revenue Code section 106. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 786

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how the timing (1953-54, a year before Brown v. Board context) of this reversal and re-enactment sits within the book’s broader civil-rights tax history.