When does surplus reach a certain level before ruin?

Laplace transform of the first passage time across a given level before ruin is investigated for the surplus process in a perturbed risk model. Such a result is used to obtain the joint distribution of the maximal surplus before ruin, the surplus immediately before ruin and the deficit at ruin, associated with the ruin time. It also allows us to study the similar joint distribution for a risk model with a two-step premium rate.