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&lt;div style="margin-top: 12pt; font-size: 10pt;" align="left"&gt;&lt;b&gt;9. INCOME TAXES&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-top: 6pt; font-size: 10pt;" align="left"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Under current Bermuda law, Holdings and its Bermuda subsidiaries are not required to pay taxes in Bermuda on either income or capital gains. Holdings and Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd have received an assurance from the Bermuda Minister of Finance under the Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966 of Bermuda, that in the event of any such taxes being imposed, Holdings and Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd will be exempted from such taxes until March&amp;nbsp;28, 2016. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-top: 6pt; font-size: 10pt;" align="left"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Certain subsidiaries of Holdings file U.S. federal income tax returns and various U.S. state income tax returns, as well as income tax returns in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland and Hong Kong. The following tax years by jurisdiction are open to examination: &lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;td style="border-bottom: #000000 1px solid;" colspan="2" nowrap="nowrap" align="center"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Fiscal Years&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-indent: -15px; margin-left: 15px;"&gt;U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for the U.S. subsidiaries&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;td align="left"&gt;2006 &amp;ndash; 2009&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-indent: -15px; margin-left: 15px;"&gt;Inland Revenue for the U.K. branches&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;td align="left"&gt;2008 &amp;ndash; 2009&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-indent: -15px; margin-left: 15px;"&gt;Irish Revenue Commissioners for the Irish subsidiaries&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;td align="left"&gt;2005 &amp;ndash; 2009&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-indent: -15px; margin-left: 15px;"&gt;Swiss Federal Tax Administration for the Swiss branch&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;td align="left"&gt;2008 &amp;ndash; 2009&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-indent: -15px; margin-left: 15px;"&gt;Inland Revenue Department for the Hong Kong branch&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;div style="margin-top: 6pt; font-size: 10pt;" align="left"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;To the best of the Company's knowledge, there are no examinations pending by the Inland Revenue or the Irish Revenue Commissioners. The IRS is currently completing an examination of the 2006 tax returns of Darwin Professional Underwriters, Inc. ("Darwin"). The examination covers the tax return filed for the period subsequent to Darwin's initial public offering on May&amp;nbsp;16, 2006 to December&amp;nbsp;31, 2006. &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-top: 6pt; font-size: 10pt;" align="left"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Management has deemed all material tax positions to have a greater than 50% likelihood of being sustained based on technical merits if challenged. The Company does not expect any material unrecognized tax benefits within 12&amp;nbsp;months of January&amp;nbsp;2010.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;</NonNumbericText>
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