Florida Surplus Lines Tax Calculator

What surplus lines is

Surplus lines is the segment of the insurance market where coverage is placed with a non-admitted carrier — a carrier that is not licensed to write insurance directly in Florida but is eligible to write surplus-lines risks through a Florida-licensed surplus-lines agent. Florida calls these carriers "Eligible Surplus Lines Insurers" or E&S carriers. The legal framework is F.S. § 626.913–626.937, the Florida Surplus Lines Law.

Surplus lines exists because the admitted Florida market does not write every risk. The hardest-to-place exposures — coastal homes the admitted market has exited, older roofs that fail underwriting, prior-claim properties, high-value residential above admitted-carrier limits, specialty commercial, vacant property, and entire lines the admitted market has stopped quoting — flow into surplus lines. After the 2022 reinsurance disruption and Hurricane Ian, an unusually large share of Florida residential property coverage migrated into surplus lines as admitted carriers contracted or became insolvent.

A surplus-lines policy is not "second-tier" coverage in any technical sense — many E&S carriers are Lloyd's syndicates, Bermudian reinsurers, or major global insurers writing through US E&S subsidiaries. But the policyholder gives up two protections that come with admitted coverage. First, surplus-lines insurers are not backed by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) — if the carrier becomes insolvent, FIGA does not pay the claims. Second, surplus-lines forms and rates are not subject to Florida OIR approval, so coverage terms, exclusions, and rates are entirely negotiated rather than regulated.

The Diligent Effort requirement — F.S. § 626.916

Before a Florida surplus-lines placement is permitted, the producer must make a Diligent Effort to place the risk in the admitted market. For personal residential, the standard is three written declinations from Florida-admitted carriers; for commercial, the standard is one declination. The producer must document the declinations and the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO) filing portal enforces the requirement — placements without documented declinations are flagged for OIR review.

A limited Exported Lines List maintained by the Florida OIR exempts a small set of lines from the Diligent Effort requirement entirely. The list includes specialty marine, certain auto products, professional liability for specific professions, and a handful of other narrowly-defined exposures the OIR has determined the admitted market does not meaningfully serve. The list is updated annually — verify the current list at floir.com before relying on the exemption.

The three statutory charges

A Florida surplus-lines placement carries three distinct statutory charges:

1. Surplus Lines Premium Tax — F.S. § 626.932

A 5.00% tax on the taxable basis. The taxable basis is the gross policy premium plus any policy-level fees (policy fee, inspection fee, broker fee). The tax is owed by the insured (F.S. § 626.932 is a tax on the insured, not on the carrier), but is collected and remitted by the surplus-lines agent under F.S. § 626.931. In practice the tax appears as a line item on the policy declarations or the agent's invoice; the insured pays gross premium plus taxes in one payment.

Retail-producer commissions are not separately added to the taxable basis. Commissions are paid out of the gross premium and do not grow the taxable basis. Broker fees disclosed on the policy, in contrast, are part of the taxable basis — the distinction matters on commercial placements where broker fees can run several thousand dollars.

2. FSLSO Service Fee — F.S. § 626.9325

A 0.06% fee on the same taxable basis. The fee funds the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO), the non-profit organization created under F.S. § 626.921 to administer surplus-lines filings, market data, and Diligent Effort verification on behalf of the OIR. The rate is set by FSLSO board action under the authority of § 626.9325 — verify the current rate at fslso.com at every rate change. The 0.06% rate has been in effect since 2019.

3. EMPA Fee — F.S. § 252.372

A flat $4 per policy fee on most property and casualty policies issued in Florida — admitted and surplus-lines alike. The fee funds the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The fee is a flat charge regardless of premium size; it does not scale with allocation. Exempt lines include life, health, title, workers' compensation, reinsurance assumed by Florida-domiciled reinsurers, and certain export-only policies on the OIR Exported Lines List.

A worked example — Florida HO-3 surplus lines

A Florida homeowner is nonrenewed by their admitted carrier mid-2026; the producer collects three written declinations and binds a surplus-lines HO-3 with a Lloyd's syndicate. Premium $5,000, plus a $250 policy fee. No inspection or broker fee. Single-state placement (100% Florida).

• Gross taxable amount: $5,000 + $250 = $5,250
• Taxable basis (100% Florida): $5,250
• Surplus Lines Tax (F.S. § 626.932): $5,250 × 5.00% = $262.50
• FSLSO Service Fee (F.S. § 626.9325): $5,250 × 0.06% = $3.15
• EMPA Fee (F.S. § 252.372): $4.00
• Total taxes and fees: $269.65
• Effective rate: $269.65 / $5,000 = 5.39% of premium

The all-in cost to the homeowner is $5,250 (premium + policy fee) + $269.65 (taxes) = $5,519.65.

A worked example — commercial property surplus lines

A Florida commercial property owner binds $100,000 of property coverage on a coastal warehouse with a Bermudian E&S carrier. No policy fee, no inspection fee, $1,500 broker fee. Single-state placement.

• Gross taxable amount: $100,000 + $1,500 = $101,500
• Taxable basis (100% Florida): $101,500
• Surplus Lines Tax: $101,500 × 5.00% = $5,075.00
• FSLSO Fee: $101,500 × 0.06% = $60.90
• EMPA Fee: $4.00
• Total taxes and fees: $5,139.90
• Effective rate: $5,139.90 / $100,000 = 5.14% of premium

Notice the effective rate is closer to the 5.00% statutory tax rate on a large commercial placement than on a small residential placement — the EMPA flat fee is a meaningful share of the total on a $5,000 policy and a negligible share on a $100,000 policy.

Who collects and when — F.S. § 626.931

The surplus-lines agent collects the gross premium, the policy-level fees, and the statutory taxes from the insured in one payment, then remits the tax to the Florida Department of Revenue and the FSLSO service fee to the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office. Filings are quarterly: April 15, July 15, October 15, January 15 for the prior calendar quarter. Late filings carry penalty and interest under F.S. § 626.932(2). Surplus-lines agents holding a portfolio of placements should reconcile FSLSO portal filings against the quarterly tax return to catch mismatches before they accrue.

Multi-state allocation and NRRA

When a risk straddles multiple states — multi-location commercial property, fleet auto, package policies covering operations in several states — the federal Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA, 2010) established the home-state rule. The insured's home state collects tax on 100% of the premium, regardless of where the exposure sits. When Florida is the home state, Florida collects the full 5% surplus-lines tax on the full premium and no other state taxes the placement. When Florida is NOT the home state but a portion of the exposure is in Florida, no Florida surplus-lines tax is owed — the home state collects on the full premium.

Florida has not joined either the NIMA or SLIMPACT multi-state tax-sharing compacts, so the home-state rule resolves the allocation question simply. The calculator's allocation input is principally useful for non-Florida home-state risks where the user wants to model the Florida-allocated share without thinking through the federal home-state mechanics. For any meaningful multi-state placement, use a Florida-licensed surplus-lines agent and confirm the correct routing.

The Exported Lines List

Some lines of insurance are exempt from the F.S. § 626.916 Diligent Effort requirement because the OIR has determined the admitted market does not meaningfully serve them. The Florida OIR publishes an Exported Lines List annually that names the exempt lines. Common entries include specialty marine, kidnap and ransom, certain motor-truck cargo lines, and professional liability for specific professions. The list is updated annually — verify the current list at floir.com before relying on the exemption. The Exported Lines List does NOT exempt placements from the surplus-lines tax, the FSLSO fee, or the EMPA fee — it exempts only from the pre-bind Diligent Effort declination requirement.

Common errors on surplus-lines tax statements

The calculator exists primarily so the insured can verify the surplus-lines agent's tax statement line by line. The four most common errors:

• Forgetting the EMPA fee on small-premium residential placements. The $4 flat fee is easy to miss on a $1,500 premium but is statutorily required.
• Taxing retail-producer commissions. Commissions are paid out of premium and not separately taxable. Adding the commission to the taxable basis double-taxes the premium.
• Wrong allocation. A multi-state risk where Florida is the home state is taxed at 100% of premium, not the Florida-exposure share. A multi-state risk where Florida is not the home state has zero Florida tax.
• FSLSO fee rate drift. The 0.06% rate has been in effect since 2019, but the rate is set by FSLSO board action under the authority of § 626.9325, not by statute. Verify the current rate at fslso.com at every rate change rather than hard-coding 0.06% in a long-running portfolio workflow.

When premium is fully earned vs returned on cancellation

If the surplus-lines policy is cancelled mid-term and unearned premium is returned to the insured under F.S. § 627.7283, the surplus-lines tax and FSLSO fee on the returned premium are refunded as well. The surplus-lines agent files a return-premium endorsement with FSLSO and a tax credit on the next quarterly return. The EMPA fee is generally not refunded on cancellation because it is a flat per-policy fee, not a percentage of premium — the policy was issued and the EMPA charge was earned at issuance. Carrier handling on the flat fees varies; verify with the surplus-lines agent on any specific cancellation.

A fully-earned policy fee — one the carrier has designated as non-refundable in the surplus-lines contract — is not returned, and the tax on the fully-earned policy fee is not refunded either. This matters on mid-term cancellations of policies with large policy fees: the tax on the retained policy fee is a real out-of-pocket cost the insured does not recover.