Life Insurance Surrender taxable income?

If a whole life policy is cashed in, is it considered taxable income? There was interest accumulated of course, but the costs and fees more than offset it. Over a 15+ year period, it was only a couple thousand dollars...

If you surrender a life insurance policy for cash, you must include in income any proceeds that are more than the cost of the life insurance policy. In general, your cost (or investment in the contract) is the total of premiums that you paid for the life insurance policy, less any refunded premiums, rebates, dividends or unpaid loans that were not included in your income.

You should receive a Form 1099-R showing the total proceeds and the taxable part. Report those amounts on lines 16a and 16b of Form 1040 or lines 12a and 12b of Form 1040A.
(From IRS Publication 17, page 90)

regards,