Pitney Bowes Business Insight has announced an investigation of the IPT solution by the Kentucky Department of Insurance

Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI), one of the leading global provider of location and communication intelligence offerings, today announced that its GeoTAX® Insurance Premium Tax solution has been officially verified by the Kentucky Department of Insurance. Under a recent change in state legislation, Kentucky now requires that insurance carriers use a verified geo-spatial database that appends the correct state, county, township municipality and premium tax district information to each customer record. Any insurance provider selling policies in Kentucky must begin using a verified system by January 1, 2010.

The PBBI GeoTAX Insurance Premium Tax solution automates the tax jurisdiction determination process for insurance carriers that are currently required to pay taxes on premiums written in an increasing number of states. Each year, many municipalities, fire and police districts change boundaries, which are the foundation for most premium tax districts. Pitney Bowes Business Insight provides an ongoing research program, with nationwide coverage, that tracks these changes and provides carriers with an integrated solution with up–to–date premium tax boundary information. The PBBI GeoTAX solution helps eliminate the tedious and complicated manual and ZIP code™ based systems, providing more accurate results, greatly minimizing the audit risk, eliminating fines and boosting customer satisfaction.

Kentucky began the verification process after 13 insurance companies were named in a class action lawsuit for charging incorrect premium taxes. These companies failed to assign their customers to the correct tax jurisdiction resulting in Kentucky residents being under/over-charged for premium taxes, or in some cases, being charged for taxes when their address did not fall into a designated tax jurisdiction at all. Verified systems have been evaluated by the state and selected based on their accuracy in defining the local tax jurisdictions.

“With the tremendous amount of money spent on premium taxes, it is imperative that these state taxes are assigned correctly,” said Robert Meador, director of GeoTax Product Management at Pitney Bowes Business Insight. “We are pleased to be able to help our customers meet the new regulations requiring that all insurers who do business in the state utilize a verified premium tax location system like GeoTAX. In addition to precise premium tax jurisdiction assignments, insurance carriers can use this technology, which includes address standardization, to improve customer retention, reduce costs and streamline operations in all states that have premium taxes.”