Insurance duty

Insurer's obligations

If you are an insurer, and have written a contract of life insurance or received premiums, you must lodge a return. See insurance duty returns for more information.

Insured person's obligations

Usually, the insurer or broker would pay insurance duty to us. If you have already been charged duty on your insurance policy, then you do not need to pay us separately.

In some cases, the insured person or the insurance policy holder must pay the duty directly to us (e.g. if the insurer is not registered or is an overseas company).

If you have not been charged insurance duty, and your policy is not exempt, you may need to:

• complete a Form 8.2—Insurance duty statement (PDF 335 K) 
• pay duty to us within 30 days after the premium was paid.

Please contact us if you are not sure whether you need to pay duty.

Overseas insurance companies

Certain overseas insurance companies may not have to register with us as they do not conduct business in Queensland.

However, insurance duty must still be paid on any policy taken out with an overseas insurer that relates to:

• property in Queensland
• risks associated with Queensland
• life insurance for a Queensland resident.

This ensures that overseas insurers do not have an unfair advantage over their Australian-based competitors.

General insurance (Class 1) includes	General insurance (Class 2)	Compulsory third party insurance	Accident insurance	Life insurance
Building and contents cover	Professional indemnity	A policy of insurance under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994	As defined in the Worker's Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003	Applies to the life, or an event relating to the life, of a person living in Queensland when the policy is issued
Public liability	Personal injury due to the person's travel on an aircraft
Marine liability	Motor vehicle, other than CTP insurance
Crop insurance	A home mortgage that is a first mortgage
Stand-alone trauma and disability insurance	Life insurance rider
Travel insurance (other than insurance for a person's injury relating to that person's travel on an aircraft)

The following types of insurance are exempt from insurance duty:

• Marine—insurance for the physical loss or damage to the hull of a boat used mainly for commercial purposes
• Goods in transit—insurance for the physical loss or damage to, or loss of freight of, goods in transit
• Health—insurance entered into in the course of an insurer’s health insurance business
• Reinsurance between one insurer and another insurer.

Public liability insurance taken out by community organisations may also be exempt in certain circumstances.

Premiums for a contract of general insurance for one of the following may be apportioned:

• property in both Queensland and another state
• something that in the normal course of events may happen wholly or partly in Queensland.

Apportionment also applies to a contract of life insurance for people living in Australia, at least one of whom has a home in Queensland when the policy is issued.

A regulation may state how premiums are to be apportioned. We may, on written application, apportion a premium on another basis.

See apportionment of general insurance duty premiums for more information.