Unclaimed property

Unclaimed property is custodial, not fiscal: the state takes the property for the missing owner, so nexus thresholds, Public Law 86-272, and apportionment never enter the analysis. These entries cover what escheats, which state can claim it, and how the enforcement programs actually run.

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Multistate

What is unclaimed property, and why is it not a tax?Every state has an unclaimed property law, and nearly every company holds property those laws reach: uncashed vendor and payroll checks, customer credit balances, unused gift card balances, amounts parked in suspense accounts. The regime is custodial rather than fiscal. The state takes the property as conservator for the missing owner, which is precisely why none of the guardrails a tax practitioner relies on apply. There is no nexus threshold to fall under, no Public Law 86-272 protection to invoke, no apportionment to divide the liability, and the limitation periods that discipline tax assessments are thinner and in some states barely present. A company that has never filed an unclaimed property report is not a nonfiler in a distant state it can ignore; it is a holder of someone else's property, reachable under priority rules the Supreme Court of the United States wrote, and states enforce the obligation through audits precisely because the proceeds arrive without anyone voting for a tax increase.