(a) A member insurer may offset against its premium or income tax liability to this Commonwealth a proportionate part of the assessments described in section 1707¹ to the extent of twenty per centum (20%) of the amount of such assessment for each of the five (5) calendar years following the year in which such assessment was paid. In the event a member insurer should cease doing business, all uncredited assessments may be credited against its premium or income tax liability for the year it ceases doing business.

(b) The proportionate part of an assessment which may be offset against a member insurer's premium or income tax liability to the Commonwealth shall be determined according to a fraction of which the denominator is the total premiums (in the category assessed) received by the member insurer during the calendar year immediately preceding the year in which the assessment is paid and the numerator is that portion of the premiums received during such year on account of policies or contracts of life insurance (including or limited to annuities and unallocated annuities per account or subaccount, as applicable per the assessment), or health and accident insurance (including RANLI PPO, hospital plan corporation, professional health services plan corporation and health maintenance organization subscriber policies, contracts and certificates), in which the premium rates are guaranteed during the continuance of the respective policies or contracts without a right exercisable by the member insurer to increase said premium rates.

(c) A member insurer that is exempt from taxes referenced in subsection (a) may recoup its assessments by assigning available offsets (as calculated under subsection (b)) to a taxable member or members of its controlled group, as the term is defined under section 1563(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Such assigned offsets may be utilized by the taxable member or members in the manner provided under subsection (a).

(d) A member insurer that is exempt from taxes referenced in subsection (a) and has no taxable members of a controlled group as referenced in subsection (c) may recoup its assessments by a surcharge on its premiums in a sum reasonably calculated to recoup the assessments over a reasonable period of time, as approved by the commissioner. Amounts recouped shall not be considered premiums for any other purpose, including the computation of gross premium tax, the medical loss ratio or agent commission. If a member insurer collects excess surcharges, the member insurer shall remit the excess amount to the association, and the excess amount shall be applied to reduce future assessments in the appropriate account.

(e) Any sums which are acquired by refund, pursuant to section 1707(f), from the association by member insurers, and which have theretofore been offset against premium or income taxes as provided in this section and are not then needed for the purposes of this article, shall be paid by such member insurers to this Commonwealth in such manner as the tax authorities may require. The association shall notify the commissioner that such refunds have been made.

(f) No offset against premium or income tax liability shall be permitted to the extent that a member insurer's rates or policyholder dividends have been adjusted as permitted in section 1707.