---
title: "Who pays the California surplus lines tax, and how much"
description: "California charges a 3% surplus lines tax plus a 0.18% stamping fee on non-admitted premium. Both are the broker's obligation, not a carrier remittance."
metaTitle: "California Surplus Lines Tax & Stamping Fee | Nomos"
metaDescription: "California's surplus lines tax (3%) and stamping fee (0.18%) are both paid by the broker, not the carrier. What they're calculated on and when they're due."
author: julius
publishedDate: 2026-08-11
category: Regulatory
tags: [california, surplus-lines, surplus-lines-tax, stamping-fee, e-and-s]
relatedCovers: []
relatedIndustries: []
sources:
  - label: "California Insurance Code Section 1775.5"
    url: "https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-ins/division-1/part-2/chapter-6/section-1775-5/"
  - label: "Surplus Line Association of California - Stamping Fee FAQ"
    url: "https://www.slacal.com/resources/frequently-asked-questions/stamping-fee"
faq:
  - question: "What is California's surplus lines tax rate?"
    answer: "3% of gross premiums charged, less any return premiums, under California Insurance Code Section 1775.5."
  - question: "What is the SLA stamping fee, and is it separate from the tax?"
    answer: "Yes. It's a separate 0.18% fee, in effect since January 1, 2023, paid to the Surplus Line Association of California rather than to the state."
  - question: "Who actually pays these — the carrier or the broker?"
    answer: "The surplus lines broker. Both the tax and the stamping fee are the broker's remittance obligation, not the non-admitted carrier's."
---

Two line items show up on a non-admitted placement that don't exist on an admitted policy: a surplus lines tax and a stamping fee. Both are real, both are the broker's obligation to remit, and neither one comes out of the carrier's premium.

## The tax is 3%, and it's the broker's payment, not the carrier's

[California Insurance Code Section 1775.5 sets the surplus lines tax at 3% of gross premiums charged, less any return premiums](https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-ins/division-1/part-2/chapter-6/section-1775-5/), on business done under the broker's surplus lines license. The statute frames this as a monthly payment obligation running on the broker's own business, with an annual reconciliation — it isn't something a carrier withholds or remits on the broker's behalf.

## The stamping fee is separate, and goes to the SLA, not the state

On top of the tax, [the Surplus Line Association of California charges a 0.18% stamping fee, in effect since January 1, 2023](https://www.slacal.com/resources/frequently-asked-questions/stamping-fee), paid by the broker directly to the SLA rather than to the Department of Insurance. It funds the SLA's own filing-review function — the stamping process that checks each placement for diligent-search compliance and carrier eligibility, [covered separately](/resources/california-diligent-search-requirement/) — not the state tax itself.

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## What this actually means for a submission

Neither figure is optional or negotiable at the point of binding, and neither is a carrier line item a retail producer needs to chase separately — they're part of what the surplus lines broker remits after the placement closes. What matters for the submission itself is that the premium a producer sees quoted is the number the tax and stamping fee get calculated against, not a number that already nets them out. A clean submission states the requested premium plainly; the tax and stamping fee math happens on Nomos's side of the filing, not the retail producer's.