FAQ: What does the State do to find unclaimed property owners?
The State Treasurer’s Office uses a variety of methods to locate unclaimed property owners. The Office of the State Treasurer has annual advertisements in newspapers throughout the state, cross-references the names of unclaimed property owners with public record information. The State Treasurer and his staff also attend public events, such as the Wisconsin State Fair to raise awareness for those that may have Unclaimed Property and help people make a claim if they find their names on the database.
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Where’s my TAX REFUND Check? And Where It’s Not!
One of our claims representatives brought to Deputy Scott Feldt’s attention, she is receiving a flood of calls on Wisconsin’s Office of the State Treasurer, Unclaimed Property line regarding TAX REFUNDS.
The bad news, Uncle Sam doesn’t live or work in our office. The good news, our dutiful Treasurer, Deputy, and Unclaimed Property staff do! They continue to work to return unclaimed funds to you. We are ready and willing to assist you with processing unclaimed property listed in our database click here or receiving it from our holders (registered business in Wisconsin).
The following contacts are where you can find people able to help you with your TAX RETURN questions!
To check your return status by telephone:
(608) 266-8100 in Madison
(414) 227-4907 in Milwaukee,
or toll free (866) WIS-RFND (947-7363) in other areas
For other questions 608-266-2772 Individuals and 608-266-2776 for Business
Collections area Delinquent Tax Assistance Phone: (608) 266-7879
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Long Wait for Statute Changes May Finally Be Over
For each of the past 2 years, the Office of the State Treasurer has attempted to enact changes to Statute 177, the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. Now, these changes may be coming to fruition. On November 18, Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-20) introduced Senate Bills 294, 295, and 296 into the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Utilities, Commerce, and Government Operations.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Sen. Grothman and Rep. Kramer (R-97), the bill’s Assembly sponsor, for introducing these changes, and also to explain what these bills will mean for the Unclaimed Property Program.
SB 294 establishes a uniform review process in the event that an unclaimed property claimant disagrees with the administrator’s decision regarding the status of a claim.
SB 295 requires heirfinders to submit a copy of their agreement with the unclaimed property owner to the Unclaimed Property Program for purposes of legal verification.
SB 296 allows the Unclaimed Property Administrator to assess a 12% interest penalty on unclaimed property holders who willfully neglect to turn over unclaimed property to my office. The statute used to require the administrator to assess an 18% interest penalty. The added discretion this statute gives to the Unclaimed Property Administrator will allow my office to increase compliance with holder reporting laws through education, without penalizing businesses who found themselves in violation through ignorance of the law.
I will update theis blog as soon as any action is taken on these bills.
More than $20 Million in Unclaimed Property Reported This Year
It’s Holder Reporting Season for the Office of the State Treasurer. We have received $20,642,148 in unclaimed property in 2011. But we are still inputting more reports sent to us by businesses. There’s 13 more boxes in the vault and my staff is working quickly to get the information into our database.
This information will be available in 2012 and will appear in newspapers starting in April. These are the lists of names you see every year in your local paper!
We created a video recently to help “Holders” report properly with our office. You can watch it via our YouTube Channel if interested. Most Holders have said it helped. It can be confusing to report properly and when there’s a deadline involved, it can get even more hectic.
Holder Reporting Coordinator Shannon Churchill and Financial Specialist Wesley Stefonek are inputting all the Unclaimed Property Information into the database...they have a few more boxes to go through!
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