New Effort Wants Easier Way To Return Unclaimed Property To California Taxpayers
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A new effort is geared at getting California taxpayers billions of their own dollars back from the state.
Unclaimed property accounts have $7 billion piled up in the state Controller's office.
Somehow an old insurance refund and two small credit union payments never got to a woman we spoke to. That money ended up in the state's massive unclaimed property division.
FIND YOUR MONEY: California Unclaimed Property Search
A new report by the legislative analysts office is shining a like on that money. The state is spending the value of the unclaimed property in its own general fund each year. The LAO says more should be done to get the money where it belongs.
"It is kind of a fundamental problem with the law, that when property owners aren't benefiting, the law sets up the state benefiting, and so there is always going to be this tension," said Ryan Miller.
He suggests the controller's office could set up automatic returns for some property owners so they wouldn't have to file a claim. There are now 28 million unclaimed property claims totaling more than $7 billion.
"If everybody came forward at once, to collect all their property, which is very unlikely, the state would have to pay out that amount," he said.
