Senate Bill No. 673
(By Senator Minard)
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[Introduced March 26, 2001; referred to the Committee on Banking
and Insurance; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen-b, article three,
chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
credits against premium taxes for investment in West Virginia
securities by insurers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen-b, article three, chapter thirty-three
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. LICENSING, FEES AND TAXATION OF INSURERS.
§33-3-14b. Credits against premium tax for investment in West
Virginia securities.
(a) If the annual statement of any insurance company insurer covering a calendar year shows it to have investments at the close
of said year in West Virginia securities, as hereinafter defined,
of as much as at least twenty-five percent of its admitted assets,
it shall be is entitled to a credit against the premium tax levied
by section sections fourteen and fourteen-a of this article and the
premium tax levied by section fourteen-a of this article in an
amount equal to one hundred percent of such tax the taxes for such
the calendar year: Provided, That the insurance company insurer
proves to the satisfaction of the commissioner that it employs less
than twenty full-time employees, has net written gross direct
premiums in this state of less than ten million dollars and
provides derives a minimum of fifty percent of its net written
gross direct premiums from insurance provided to under-served and
high risk areas of West Virginia that are both underserved and high
risk.
West Virginia securities, as used in this section, shall mean
real estate situate in this state; bonds or interest-bearing notes
or obligations of this state; bonds or interest-bearing notes or
obligations of any county, district, school district or independent
school district, municipality or any other political subdivision of
this state.
(b) As used in this section:
(1) "Full-time employees" means all elected officers, all
full-time employees, all part-time employees counted as full-time
employee equivalents and all full and part-time equivalent
employees providing any type of service by contract or by any other
arrangement.
(2) "High risk areas" means those counties of the state in
which the ratio of the insurer's incurred losses to the insurer's
earned premium is greater than seventy-five percent for the year of
the filing.
(3) "Underserved areas" means those counties of the state for
which the insurer demonstrates to the satisfaction of the
commissioner that consumers in that county have an inadequate
choice of insurance providers.
(4) "West Virginia securities" means real estate situate in
this state; bonds or interest-bearing notes or obligations of this
state; and bonds or interest-bearing notes or obligations of any
county, district, school district or independent school district,
municipality or any other political subdivision of this state.
NOTE: The purpose of the bill is to amend the existing tax
credit to clarify ambiguous language and to allow the credit only
on gross direct premiums.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.