Law360, New York ( May 6, 2015, 12:23 PM EDT) -- Earlier this month, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., represented by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, won a federal appeal permitting the company to deduct policyholder dividends in the year the dividends were declared, even though the dividends were not actually paid until the following year, on the anniversary dates of each renewed policy. The decision, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., et al v. United States, No. 14-05019 (Fed. Cir. 2015), is potentially relevant to any taxpayer using an accrual method of accounting (which includes almost all corporations) that guarantees a liability to a group in the year before the liability will be paid, and to many different types of liabilities including, for example, deferred compensation....