The Covid-19 pandemic has hit states’ budgets hard and New York may be looking to increase compliance with a lesser-known law concerning unclaimed or abandoned property to close that gap.
Simply put, the law requires unclaimed property to be remitted to the State when the property owner cannot be reached for a period of time (dormancy period). The State is allowed use of the property while it awaits claim by the owner.
Unclaimed property may consist of the following: wages, pensions, uncashed checks, customer deposits, bank accounts, dividends, insurance proceeds, gift certificates, etc.
What to Know
After a dormancy period of generally 3 years (5 years for gift cards) during which there has been no contact between the property owner and the holder, the holder is required to attempt to reach the property owner before remitting the property to NYS.
Filing date is March 10th for the preceding calendar year.
There are interest and penalties for failure to file, or late filing. Willful failure to report penalty is $100 per day for each day the report is late. Interest is charged at 10% per year.
NYS does offer a Voluntary Disclosure program to filers that have not yet been contacted by the State for an unclaimed property audit. If eligible for Voluntary Disclosure, the filer can limit their back filing to 10 years, eliminate penalties and receive indemnification from owners and State.
To see if you have unclaimed property in New York state, check here: https://ouf.osc.state.ny.us/ouf/?wicket-crypt=JejpstvsSt8.
