Who needs to file a premium tax return

In Washington state, we require electronic tax forms from:

  • Insurers licensed in Washington during the tax year
  • Purchasing groups admitted in Washington
  • Risk retention groups admitted in Washington
  • Surplus line brokers, including:
    • Business entities
    • Unaffiliated individuals with active surplus line licenses during the tax year
    • Those that didn't do business or that have someone else pay their premium taxes (see the surplus line broker requirements for details)
  • Unregistered or unauthorized entities involved in insurance

How to file a premium tax return

We sent login information to your tax contact. To see who your tax contact is, visit the Filing and Payment Center. You'll need your Washington state license (WAOIC) or National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) number to sign in.

If you're unregistered and need to file a premium tax return, contact our premium tax experts for help.

Premium tax return due date

Premium tax returns are due each year on or before March 1. If the due date is Saturday or Sunday, you can submit them the next business day.

Retaliatory fees and taxes you need to report

If you're a foreign entity and your premium tax form includes a "State of Domicile" reporting column, you may owe retaliatory fees or taxes. Use this list to find common retaliatory items for your state:

Premium tax refunds

When we check your filing, we'll determine if you owe prepayments this year. If you do, we'll keep any refund amount less than or equal to your prepayments. If you don't owe prepayments or the refund is more than what you owe, we'll mail a refund check to your tax contact.

If your premiums for the year are negative, you won't necessarily get a refund. Negative premiums can lower your taxes to zero, but never a negative number. However, we will refund any quarterly prepayments you sent us for the tax year.

How to amend a tax return

To file an amended tax form, visit the Filing and Payment Center and choose "Amend Tax Form" from the menu.

Amended tax return penalties

We charge penalties in stages: 5%, 10% and 20%.

  • If you don't pay by the end of the month when your payment is due, we charge a 5% penalty.
  • If you don't pay within 45 days of the due date, the penalty goes up to 10%.
  • If you don't pay within 60 days of the due date, the penalty goes up to 20%.
  • If you pay 61 days or later after the due date, we add interest to the 20% penalty.

For details, read Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 48.14.060.