Surplus Lines Agents Tax

This tax is 3 percent of gross premiums and must be collected at the time of the delivery of the policy. Licensed surplus lines agents must file the Gross Premiums Tax – Surplus Lines Agents Report (RCT-123) by January 31 for the previous calendar year, regardless of whether any business was produced. This ensures accurate remittance of the 3 percent surplus lines tax on taxable premiums, less any return premium. 

The Department of Revenue has determined that premiums charged the commonwealth and its political subdivisions (counties, municipalities, school districts, etc.) are exempt from the tax. However, the enabling statute does not provide any exemptions from the tax.

The preferred method of filing and paying is through the Department of Revenue’s electronic filing system myPATH.

Failure to make a payment by an approved method will result in the imposition of a 3 percent penalty of the tax due, up to $500.

All payments of $1,000 or more must be made electronically through myPATH or by certified cashier’s check mailed to:

PA Department of Revenue
PO Box 280404
Harrisburg, PA 17128-0404

Payments under $1,000 may be remitted by check made payable to the PA Department of Revenue.  

PA Department of Revenue
PO Box 280407
Harrisburg, PA 17128-0407 

In addition to filing and paying through Department of Revenue’s myPATH, agents are required to submit an image of the full RCT-123 report (all pages), electronically via PSLA’s Electronic Filing System (EFS) platform.

Please review Section 1621. of the Pennsylvania Surplus Lines Law: https://www.pasla.org/sl_law.htm#sll_1621

PSLA performs a review of the submitted image to ensure consistency with the data entered into its system. If discrepancies, such as missing officer signatures, mismatched customer IDs, incorrect agency names, or incomplete pages are found, PSLA will return the filing. 

File the RCT-123 and remit the 3 percent surplus lines tax to PA DOR via myPATH, by January 31 for the previous calendar year, regardless of whether any business was produced.

Please review RCT-123 Report Image and Common Discrepancies to Avoid at: https://www.pasla.org/filing_RCT.htm to ensure consistency between PSLA image uploads and DOR submissions to avoid filing rejections.

Upload the complete RCT-123 in PSLA’s Electronic Filing System, EFS.

• For detailed and historic Pennsylvania surplus line agents tax information, please review the Tax Compendium.
• Pennsylvania Surplus Lines Association (PSLA)
• PSLA RCT-123 Frequently Asked Questions
• PSLA Bulletins by Date

You may email the Department of Revenue at RA-RV-BDRA-CORP-FAX@pa.gov to confirm premium tax-exempt status of a particular risk.

PSLA cannot provide tax advice. Questions regarding the filing of RCT-123 should be directed to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

• If you have questions, please log into your myPATH account to send a message to the Department of Revenue. The ‘Send a Message’ feature is located under the ‘More Tab’ on your myPATH account.
• Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Customer Experience Center at 717-787-1064.