Chap. 195.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 75, as amended, of Chapter
400 of the Acts of Assembly of 1918, which became a law March 21, 1918,
known as “The Virginia Workmen’s Compensation Act”, the section relatin
to rates charged under the act and the tax thereon. {H 103]

Approved March 12, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section seventy-five, as amended, of chapter four hun-
dred of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred eighteen, which
became a law March twenty-one, nineteen hundred eighteen, known
as “The Virginia Workmen’s Compensation Act”, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

Section 75. (a) No insurer (whether stock, mutual, reciprocal,
or inter-insurer, or other type or form of organization) shall do
any business in this State without a permit from the State Corpora-
tion Commission. Such permit shall be given upon application
therefor, to any such company upon the said Commission being
satisfied of the solvency of such company and its ability to perform
all its undertakings; provided, if it be a foreign corporation, it has
complied with the provisions of section thirty-eight hundred and
forty-seven of the Code of Virginia.
The State Corporation Commission shall have the right to
revoke any permit issued to any such company, for violation of any
provision of this act.

(b) Each such insurance carrier shall report to the State Cor-
poration Commission, in accordance with such reasonable rules as
the Commission may at any time prescribe, for the purpose of
determining the solvency of the carrier, and for such purpose the
said Commission may inspect the books and records of such insur-
anes carrier, and examine its agents, officers and directors under
oath.

Authority is hereby conferred upon the State Corporation Com-
mission to make such arrangements with the Industrial Commission
as may be agreeable to the Industrial Commission, for collecting,
compiling, preserving and publishing statistical and other data in
connection with the work of regulating workmen’s compensation
insurance rates, and for the division of the expenses thereof, to the
end that duplication of work and expenditures may be avoided;
and whenever it deems proper, with the consent of the Industrial
Commission, it may appoint members of the Industrial Commission,
or its employees, as special agents of the State Corporation Com-
mission to take testimony and make reports with reference to any
matter involving questions of workmen’s compensation insurance
rates.

(c) For the purpose of paying the salaries and necessary
expenses of the Industrial Commission and its assistants and
employees in administering and carrying out the provisions of this
act, an administrative fund shall be created and maintained in the
following manner:

Every person, partnership, association, corporation, whether
organized under the laws of this or any other State or country,
company, mutual company or association, the parties to any inter-
indemnity contract or reciprocal plan or scheme, and every other
insurance carrier, insuring employers in this State against liability
for personal injuries to their employees, or death caused thereby,
under the provisions of this act, shall, as hereinafter provided, pay
a tax upon the premiums received, whether in cash or notes, in this
State or on account of business done in this State, for such insur-
ance in this State, at the rate of two and one-half per centum of
the amount of such premium, which tax shall be in lieu of all
other taxes on such premiums, which tax shall be assessed and
collected as hereinafter provided; provided, however, that such
insurance carriers shall be credited with all cancelled or returned
premiums, actually refunded during the year on such insurance,
and with premiums on reinsurance assumed.

(d) Every such insurance carrier shall, for the twelve months
ending December thirty-first, of each year, make a return verified
by the affidavits of its president and secretary, or other chief officers
or agents, to the Industrial Commission of Virginia stating the
amount of such premiums and credits during the period covered
by such return.

The State Corporation Commission shall have access at all
times to the records so filed with the Industrial Commission by
such insurance carriers, and may require such additional informa-
tion as it deems necessary for the performance of the duties herein
conferred upon said Commission.

Every insurance carrier required to make such return shall file
the same with the Industrial Commission of Virginia within thirty
days after the close of the period covered thereby and shall at the
same time pay into the State treasury a tax of two and one-half
dollars on each one hundred dollars of such premium ascertained as
provided in subsection (c) hereof, less returned premiums and
re-insurance assumed. Upon receiving such payments the Comp-
troller shall place the whole thereof to the credit of the fund for
the administration of this act, and shall pay same out in the manner
provided by section twenty-two and one-half of chapter thirty-
three of the Acts of the General Assembly of nineteen hundred and
twenty-seven.

(e) If any such insurance carrier shall fail or refuse to make
the return required by this act, the said Corporation Commission
shall assess the tax against such insurance carrier at the rate
herein provided for, on such amount of premiums as it may deem
just, and the proceedings thereon shall be the same as if the return
had been made.

(f) If any such insurance carrier shall withdraw from business
in this State before the tax shall fall due, as herein provided, or
shall fail or neglect to pay such tax, the Comptroller shall at once
proceed to collect the same, and he is hereby empowered and
authorized to employ such legal process as may be necessary for
that purpose, and when so collected he shall pay the same into the
State treasury. The suit may be brought by the Comptroller, in
his official capacity, in any court of this State having jurisdiction ;
reasonable attorney’s fees may be taxed as costs therein, and process
may issue to any county of the State, and may be served as in civil
actions, or in case of unincorporated associations, partnerships,
inter-indemnity contracts or other plan or scheme, upon any agent
of the parties thereto upon whom process may be served under the
laws of this State.

(g) Any person or persons who shall in this State act or
assume to act as agent for any such insurance carrier whose
authority to do business in this State has been suspended, while
such suspension remains in force, or shall neglect or refuse to
comply with any of the provisions of this section obligatory upon
such persons or party who shall wilfully make a false or fraudulent
statement of the business or condition of any such insurance carrier
or false or fraudulent return as herein provided, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by
a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than
ninety days, or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion
of the court or jury trying the case.

(h) Whenever by this act or the terms of any policy contract,
any officer is required to give any notice to any insurance carrier,
the same may be given by delivery, or by mailing by registered
letter properly addressed and stamped to the principal office or
chief agent of such insurance carrier within this State, or to its
home office, or to the secretary, general agent, or chief officer
thereof in the United States.

(i) Any insurance carrier liable to pay a tax upon premiums
under this act shall not be liable to pay any other or further tax,
upon such premiums, or on account thereof, under any other law
of this State.

(j) Every employer carrying his own risk under the provisions
of section sixty-eight shall, under oath, report to the Industrial
Commission, his payroll, subject to the provisions of this act. Such
report shall be made in form prescribed by the said Commission
and at the time herein provided for premium reports by insurer.
The said Commission shall assess against such payroll a mainte-
nance fund tax computed by taking two and one-half per centum
of the basic premiums chargeable against the same or most similar
industry or business, taken from the manual insurance rate for
compensation then in force in this State, or-in its discretion, of
such premiums modified in accordance with an experience rating
determined by the records of the Commission, which tax shall be
paid as provided in subsection (d) of this section, and if not so
paid, the same shall be collected by the Comptroller in the manner
provided in subsection (f) of this section.

The State Corporation Commission shall at all times have access
to the reports herein required to be made to the Industrial Com-
mission by self-insurers for the purpose of performing the duties
imposed upon said Commission under this act.

(k) If it be ascertained that the tax collected exceeds the total
chargeable against the maintenance fund under the provisions of
this act, the said Industrial Commission may authorize a cor-
responding credit upon the collection for any year or make refunds
of taxes collected.

2. This act shall be in effect on and after July one, nineteen
hundred forty-eight.