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If you have no new unclaimed property records for a particular state this filing year, does that mean you are off the hook? Well, not necessarily.   Most states want you to file with them each year. If you’ve reported in the past, they want to hear from you even in the years when you […]

Article written By Bill Dadmun, Records and Receipts Manager, State of Virginia   How many of you use the aggregate function when reporting?  Does it make your life easier?  Listen to this scenario and tell me if it sounds familiar.   You get a call from someone that is due $49.95 from a credit balance.  […]

This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about the dangers of reciprocal filing, but I feel like it is a topic worth covering again for those who may have missed it. Reciprocal or exchange filing means reporting records to a state even though the last known addresses for the records are not in that state. […]

Have you ever been confused about which property code to use for a certain type of property? We have all been there. NAUPA, the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, has a list of standard codes that you can view here starting at the bottom of page 17.   Property Types   There are many types […]

Due Diligence is the act of sending letters to lost owners or publishing their names in newspapers. Almost every state and every jurisdiction within a state requires companies to perform due diligence. Benefits Due diligence not only benefits owners of unclaimed property, it can also benefit your business. Many of your lost owners are customers […]

Many of you know Illinois is now operating under new legislation. If you haven’t had a chance to review the legislation, you’ll want to do so before filing this year’s unclaimed property report. One change to take note of is the repeal of the general business-to-business exemption. Not only is the exemption no longer allowed, holders […]

With unemployment low and productivity high, the US economy appears to be steaming along. But one key metric suggests otherwise: the yield curve is inverted, historically a sign that a recession is on the way. A downturn in the economy could have a major impact on how the IRS enforces tax reporting compliance.  A yield […]

Anyone familiar with the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and the portrayal of hungry sharks setting their sights on surfers may be surprised to learn that tax and IT professionals may be feeling every bit as wary as those surfers as they enter their own version of shark-infested waters. The reason: IT and tax pros are […]

Many times in my twelve years of providing customer support, I’ve heard, “This is my first time reporting and I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?” My heart goes out to those people because I know how daunting it can be to figure out how to get a report to the state. […]

Finding the best way to manage unclaimed property risk is very challenging, especially if you are filing for the first time and not under state audit. If you find your company is in an initial compliance situation you need to immediately initiate an outreach program and make every effort to contact the owners of the […]

The IRS sent letters to more than 10,000 cryptocurrency holders last week, educating them about their income tax obligations associated with cryptocurrency transactions. The IRS also included information in that correspondence about applicable penalties for taxpayers who fail to report income and pay crypto taxes.  The agency sent three letters to taxpayers: Letter 6173 https://www.irs.gov/pub/notices/letter_6173.pdf […]

At the Nationwide Tax Forums in Chicago last week, the IRS communicated details about the first wave of backup withholding penalty notices that payers should expect to receive in September and October.  These new penalty notices are related to the enforcement campaign that kicked off from the IRS Cincinnati office in July. Background – Backup […]

Are unclaimed gift cards reportable as unclaimed property? It all depends. A recent ruling favoring the state of Delaware against an online retailer brought escheatment of unclaimed gift cards into the spotlight. Unclaimed property is escheated to the state of the property owner’s last known address, but challenges arise with gift cards due to lack […]

On July 25th, Chuck Maniace, vice president of regulatory analysis and design at Sovos, hosted a replay of the  “South Dakota v. Wayfair One Year Later” webinar on regulatory updates since the groundbreaking decision last June. Thanks to all those who participated, we received an additional wide range of thought-provoking questions. Our regulatory team compiled […]

Many people hear about the exemptions that states allow for unclaimed property reporting, and they get very excited. Free money, right? What could go wrong? I will share what I know about exemptions and let you decide.   Let’s start with a simple kind of exemption. Some states exempt reporting of gift cards or gift […]

In a monumental moment for tax reporting professionals, the IRS has released a draft of Form 1099-NEC, the form that will eventually replace Form 1099-MISC box 7 for reporting nonemployee compensation and box 9 for reporting direct sales of $5,000 or more.  The NEC should alleviate confusion that resulted after the passage of the PATH […]

Despite IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig’s promise of “within the next 30 days” more than 30 days ago to Congress regarding the release of forthcoming cryptocurrency tax guidance, we have not seen anything materialize.  As we mentioned previously, the ongoing confusion related to tax reporting obligations continues to plague payers such as crypto or digital currency […]

At last, the IRS is allowing payers to truncate, or effectively mask, tax identification numbers (TINs) on Forms W-2 sent to payees. The decision comes after years of concern from companies and taxpayers about the risk of exposing TINs, or Social Security Numbers in the case of individual payees, in W-2 distributions.  The new policy […]