OIR Initiates Premium Tax Discount Rulemaking
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has published draft rule 69O-170.013 implementing the premium tax discount requirement adopted in the 2024 legislative session. The draft rule is substantially similar to emergency rule 69OER24-1 previously adopted by OIR.
The Florida legislature granted emergency rulemaking authority to both OIR and the Department of Revenue to administer the new requirement. Emergency rules typically have limited duration. By pursuing traditional rulemaking, OIR will ensure a more lasting rule is in place to implement the discount requirement. The traditional rulemaking process also allows interested parties to provide comments, giving insurers an opportunity to ask questions about implementing the discounts.
The new law, codified at Section 624.5108, Florida Statutes, requires insurers to provide discounts to residential policyholders equal to the state premium tax and fire marshal assessments. Insurers will recover the discount amounts through corresponding reductions in their premium tax and state fire marshal assessment obligations.
The discount requirement applies to policies with effective dates between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. According to the OIR rule, the discounts must be separately stated on the declarations page and must be identified as part of the renewal notice for existing policies or the quote for new business. The rule specifies the premium reductions must “be applied to the entirety of the premium due at the effectuation of the policy term.”
The only substantive difference between the emergency rule and the draft rule relates to the labels OIR indicates insurers should use for the discounts. The labels are much shorter in the new draft rule, consisting of:
- Legislative Premium Tax Discount
- Legislative Fire Marshal Discount
- Legislative Flood Premium Tax Discount
If a policy includes both dwelling coverage and flood coverage, the premium tax discount applies only once to the policy premium. In this case, the discount can be identified with the “Legislative Premium Tax Discount” label.
As with the emergency rule, the draft rule will adopt OIR form OIR-B1-596, “Supplemental Policy Credits to Premium Taxes Reporting Form,” to be used by insurers when reporting discount data. The information will be reported at the same time insurers file their quarterly and annual reports.