1. (a) Premium and Maintenance Tax Return due date. The premium tax and maintenance tax return for each taxable year ending the preceding December 31st shall be filed and the total amount of tax due shall be paid on or before the 1st day of March of each year or if a company is required to file an annual statement after March 1, the premium tax and maintenance tax report is required to be filed at that time.

2. (b) Premium tax prepayments.

   1. (1) A semiannual prepayment of premium tax must be made on March 1, or at the same time that the annual statement is required to be filed, and August 1 by all insurers with a net tax liability for the pervious calendar year in excess of $1,000. The prepayment shall equal the lesser of one-half of the total premium tax paid for the previous calendar year, or one-half of the current year's tax liability. If no premium tax was paid during the previous calendar year, the prepayment will be based on the tax which would be owed on the aggregate of premium receipts for the two preceding calendar quarters based on the minimum tax rate specified by law. If the premium tax liability for the previous year was between $.01 and $1,000, no prepayment is due.
   2. (2) The amount due is the lesser of the total annual premium tax liability from the previous year, or the actual tax liability for the current year multiplied by 50%.

3. (c) Penalty and interest. Any taxes due prior to September 1, 1993, including prepayments, are subject to the Insurance Code in effect at that time. Therefore, any assessments issued by the comptroller for additional taxes which were originally due prior to September 1, 1993, fall under the penalty and interest provisions contained within the Insurance Code, Article 4.13 and Article 4.14, in effect through August 31, 1993. Refer to paragraph (1) of this subsection. The comptroller does not have the authority to waive penalty or interest on assessments made for periods prior to September 1, 1993.

   1. (1) Prepayments and tax returns due prior to September 1, 1993.

      1. (A) Late payment.

         1. (i) Penalty. A penalty equal to 5.0% of the amount of taxes due shall be assessed for each month or portion of a month for which such payment is late. The penalty shall not exceed 20%.
         2. (ii) Interest. Interest shall accrue at an annual rate of 9.0% from the due date until the date paid.

      2. (B) Underpayment.

         1. (i) Penalty. Insurance carriers failing to satisfy the provisions of subsection (a) or (b)(1) of this section will be assessed penalty, as prescribed in subparagraph (A)(i) of this paragraph, on the difference between the amount of quarterly prepayment tax liability actually paid and the amount due.
         2. (ii) Interest. Insurance carriers failing to satisfy the provisions of subsection (a) or (b)(1) of this section will be assessed interest, as prescribed in subparagraph (A)(ii) of this paragraph, on the difference between the amount of quarterly prepayment tax liability actually paid and the amount due.

   2. (2) Prepayments and tax returns due on or after September 1, 1993.

      1. (A) Late payment.

         1. (i) A penalty of 5.0% will be assessed on all payments which are received 1-30 days after the due date. An additional 5.0% penalty will be assessed on tax payments received more than 30 days after the due date.
         2. (ii) Interest will be assessed on payments received more than 60 days after the due date at the rate of 12% per annum. Interest will begin to accrue on the 61st day from the due date and continue through date of the tax payment. The interest will be in addition to the 10% penalty assessed in clause (i) of this subparagraph.

      2. (B) Underpayment.

         1. (i) Penalty. Insurance carriers failing to satisfy the provisions of subsection (a) or (b)(2) of this section will be assessed penalty, as prescribed in subparagraph (A)(i) of this paragraph, on the difference between the amount of semiannual prepayment tax liability actually paid and the amount due.
         2. (ii) Interest. Insurance carriers failing to satisfy the provisions of subsection (a) or (b)(2) of this section will be assessed interest, as prescribed in subparagraph (A)(ii) of this paragraph, on the difference between the amount of semiannual prepayment tax liability actually paid and the amount due.
4. (d) Overpayment of tax liability. Commencing with the tax return due on March 1, 1995, if the sum of the semiannual prepayments exceeds the actual tax due as determined by the accurate and correct filing of the original or amended annual tax return, the overpayment will be automatically refunded to the taxpayer unless the taxpayer notifies the comptroller to apply the overpayment to another period. The notification should be written on the face of the tax return.

Source Note:The provisions of this §3.809 adopted to be effective December 6, 1996, 21 TexReg 11519.