Fla. House Says Thumbs Up to Premium Tax Database Bill; Off for Vote in Senate

A bill creating an electronic database for insurers to use in allocating insurance property and casualty premium taxes was passed Tuesday by Florida’s House and is headed for a vote in the Senate.

“We’ve been trying to pass this bill for nearly five years, and believe this is the year for H.B. 251,” said William Stander, regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). “Establishing a property database will make it easier for insurers to allocate the premium taxes that help fund the pensions of Florida’s police and firefighters.”

H.B. 251 would simplify the coding process for the allocation of premium taxes and create an electronic database to enable insurers to determine a property’s location for allocation of premium taxes. The bill includes substantial “hold harmless” protections for insurers using the database. The bill also provides immunity from audit and market conduct penalties for any discrepancies under the current allocation system prior to January 1, 2005.

Under the current system, insurance premium taxes are collected on property and casualty insurance policies, which are then distributed to cities and special districts corresponding to the policies’ location. Insurers sometimes reportedly have problems determining the correct location of property covered under the insurance policies, which can lead to mistakes in the revenue distribution process.

H.B. 251 creates an electronic database within the Department of Revenue (DOR) to help insurers correctly determine the locations of covered property, making it easier for the collected premium taxes to go to the appropriate jurisdictions.

The database will adopt formats approved by the American National Standards Institute’s Accredited Committee and designate the local taxing jurisdiction for each street address and address range in the state, as well as the code for each local taxing jurisdiction. The DOR and the municipalities are required to annually update the database, including information about annexations and other boundary changes.

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