Providence Washington Insurance v. Commonwealth, Department of Revenue, Board of Finance & Revenue

463 A.2d 68, 75 Pa. Commw. 463, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2227
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 13, 1983
DocketAppeals, Nos. 594 C.D. 1979 and 2621 C.D. 1979
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 463 A.2d 68 (Providence Washington Insurance v. Commonwealth, Department of Revenue, Board of Finance & Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Providence Washington Insurance v. Commonwealth, Department of Revenue, Board of Finance & Revenue, 463 A.2d 68, 75 Pa. Commw. 463, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2227 (Pa. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Rogers,

We have consolidated the tax appeals of Affiliated F. M. Insurance Company and Providence Washington Insurance Company from decisions of the Board of Finance and Revenue sustaining the settlements by the Department of Revenue of the gross premium tax of each for the years ending respectively December 31, 1977, and December 31, 1976.

The facts in both cases have been stipulated of record. We adopt these as our findings of fact. The stipulations are identical except with respect to the numerical details concerning the refunds and settlement of each petitioner. In the course of our discussion we shall refer to such of the stipulated facts as we deem essential to disposition of the appeal.

Each of the petitioners is incorporated in Rhode Island and each does business in Pennsylvania. Both are subject to the tax of two percent on gross premiums on sales of insurance within Pennsylvania, including workmen’s compensation insurance, which Pennsylvania imposes on all insurance companies doing [465]*465business in Pennsylvania pursuant to the Tax Reform Code of 1971, Act of March 4, 1971, P.L. 6, as amended, 72 P.S. §§7901-7906. The State of Rhode Island also imposes a two percent tax on gross premiums from sales of insurance.

In addition to paying a two percent gross premiums tax on all workmen’s compensation insurance sold in Rhode Island, that State, pursuant to Section 28-38-5 of the General Laws of Rhode Island, requires all insurance companies writing or renewing workmen’s compensation insurance in Rhode Island to contribute one and one-half percent of the gross premiums received from workmen’s compensation insurance written or renewed by it within Rhode Island or subject to the jurisdiction of Rhode Island during the previous calendar year into the special treasury department fund known as the Dr. John E. Donley Rehabilitation Fund. This fund is used for the care and maintenance of the Dr. John E. Donley Rehabilitation Center located in Providence, Rhode Island. The center’s only source of funding is the contribution of the one and one-half percent of the workmen’s compensation insurance premiums. Treatment at the center is free to injured Rhode Island workers whose employers have complied with the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Rhode Island and is available on the same terms to workers whose employers are policy holders with Pennsylvania insurance carriers. Further, there are no charges for the services rendered at the center, either to the carrier or to the worker patient, regardless of the services rendered or the length of time during which such services may be needed.

The center provides physical therapy, psychotherapy and occupational therapy to injured workers and provides such workers modern curative treatment, rehabilitation and therapy under the supervision of [466]*466medical personnel in consultation with the workers’ own physicians. The center does not treat injured workers suffering from brain damage, eye, ear, nose or mouth injuries. It treats primarily orthopedic type injuries. The center treats approximately two percent of the injured workers of the entire State of Rhode Island. The majority of injured workers in Rhode Island, as in Pennsylvania, are treated in private health care facilities. Most injured wokers are provided medical rehabilitation services through the workmen’s compensation insurance carrier of their employer. All workmen’s compensation insurance carriers which provide such coverage in Rhode Island have the opportunity to use the center for rehabilitation and treatment of workmen’s compensation injuries.

Under no circumstances are injured Pennsylvania workers entitled to free treatement at the Donley Center, although they may be insured by a Pennsylvania insurance carrier writing or renewing workmen’s compensation insurance in Rhode Island and which pays the additional one and one-half percent charge to Rhode Island.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania established the Hiram G. Andrews Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which provides similar rehabilitative services to the Donley Center. The Andrews Center charges fees to the patient, the patient’s employer, or to the employer’s insurance carrier to pay for the services rendered. The Andrews Center was constructed by general funds of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Since 1959 it has been a self-supporting government institution. There is no special assessment made against insurance carriers who sell workmen’s compensation insurance to fund this facility.

The Donley Center, as a result of treatment, therapy and rehabilitation rendered there, tends to reduce lost time from the job attributable to workers’ [467]*467injuries. The Donley Center also reduces the expenses of such treatment, therapy, and rehabilitation which would have been incurred by the carrier if the injured worker had to seek or be referred for such services to a private facility.

For the tax year ending December 31, 1976, Providence Washington filed in Pennsylvania its gross premium return and duly paid the tax of two percent on gross premiums from the sale of insurance. For the tax year ending December 31, 1976, Affiliated F. M. also filed its Pennsylvania gross premium return and paid the tax of two percent on gross premiums. Both companies filed a retaliatory tax information return with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue indicating that no retaliatory tax was due.

By settlement made by the Department of Revenue, each company was assessed a one and one-half percent retaliatory tax on workers compensation premiums collected in Pennsylvania during the pertinent tax year because the department determined that Rhode Island charged an additional one and one-half percent on gross premiums on Pennsylvania companies doing business in Rhode Island for the funding of the Donley Center. Both companies paid the retaliatory tax under protest. Providence Washington filed a petition for resettlement of its insurance but resettlement was refused by the Resettlement Board. Affiliated F. M. filed a petition for a refund the prayer of which the Board of Finance ¿nd Revenue refused.

Discussion

The Pennsylvania retaliatory tax imposed by Section 212 of The Insurance Department Act of 1921 (Act), Act of May 17, 1921, P.L. 789, as amended, 40 P.S. §50 is responsive to the burdens imposed on Pennsylvania insurers by the insurance tax laws of other jurisdictions. The rate of tax is set at an amount equal [468]*468to the difference between the “burdens of prohibitions” imposed by Pennsylvania on a foreign insurance company doing business in Pennsylvania and the “burdens or prohibitions” imposed by the foreign insurance company’s home state on Pennsylvania insurance companies doing business in the other state. Western & S.L.I. Co. v. Board of Equalization, 451 U.S. 648, 651 (1981). Section 212 of the Act provides pertinently:

If any other state imposes any burdens or prohibitions on insurance companies, or agents of this state doing business in such other state, which are in addition to, or in excess of, the burdens or prohibitions imposed by this Commonwealth

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
463 A.2d 68, 75 Pa. Commw. 463, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/providence-washington-insurance-v-commonwealth-department-of-revenue-pacommwct-1983.