Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Announces NIMA, Inc. Enters into Agreement with the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO) As Clearinghouse Provider
Apr 17, 2012
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced today, April 17, 2012, that NIMA, Inc. will contract with the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office to serve as its central clearinghouse provider for the collection and allocation of surplus lines premium tax payments for multi-state surplus lines policies.
The OIR news release on the development is reprinted below.
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NIMA, Inc. Enters into Agreement with the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO) As Clearinghouse Provider
NIMA member state representatives met via conference call on Friday, March 30, 2012 and approved both a Premium Tax Clearinghouse services agreement and license agreement. Through these agreements, NIMA, Inc. will contract with the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO) to serve as its central clearinghouse provider for the collection and allocation of surplus lines premium tax payments for multi-state surplus lines policies. The FSLSO will serve as the technology platform provider and will also provide all clearinghouse administrative duties. The clearinghouse will begin receiving filings for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2012. The FSLSO formally signed and effectuated the agreements on April 16, 2012.
“We have taken a big step this week toward implementing the business plan of NIMA, Inc.,” said South Dakota’s Director of Insurance Merle Scheiber. “This is good public policy for multi-state surplus lines, and I’m looking forward to the success of this endeavor.”
“The FSLSO strives to deliver leading edge technology to all its customers, and we are proud to have the opportunity to provide that same level of service to the states of NIMA, Inc.,” said Gary Pullen, Executive Director of the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office.”As an organization, we are pleased to be a part of this national effort to streamline the collection and remittance of surplus lines taxes.”
NIMA, Inc., is a non-profit corporation established by NIMA states that will provide a mechanism to report, collect, allocate and distribute surplus lines tax revenues consistent with the Non-Admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA). The NRRA became part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform legislation passed in 2010 that allows only the home state to require premium tax payments for non-admitted insurance absent an agreement. Through the NIMA agreement, participating states will be able to collect premium taxes owed to their state when they are not the home state of the policy, thus protecting each participating state’s tax revenue on surplus lines policies.
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