State Governments Stealing Unclaimed Taxpayer Money

Every state in the union is in possession of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, unclaimed insurance policies, money from dormant investment and savings accounts and other unclaimed property that would normally be returned to the rightful owner of the property, but for whatever reason, that person can’t be found. These assets are typically held onto by the state until the person can be found, however, with recent declines in taxation revenue, state governments are now eyeing these funds as a way to shore-up lost revenues.

A recent USA Today articled that Washington, Alabama, Delaware, Oregon, Louisiana, Kentucky and South Carolina have all changed their laws so that they could seize unclaimed property after a certain period of time and not be legally required to return it. Their logic is that the money will likely never be claimed, so it should be used for the benefit of the individuals who live in the state.

One could argue about the morality of this practice for hours on end, but the best thing to do is make sure that state governments don’t have any unclaimed property that rightfully belongs to you. There are thousands of Americans that have refunds from FHA loans, money from insurance policies, unreturned taxes, and other property that’s currently in possession by state governments.  

You can check and see if a state government has any of your missing money by heading on over to www.missingmoney.com. This website will allow you to do multi-state search to see if there is any unclaimed property that belongs to you. You should at least do your search in your home state, as well as Delaware, Connecticut, and South Dakota because a lot of investment, insurance, and credit card companies are in these states.

You also might want to do a search for your spouse, your parents, and your siblings to see if you can find any of their money. The process is pretty painless, so do your friends and family a favor and check and see if there are any assets that are owed to them. Who knows? They might even give you a finder’s fee!

If you have ever had an FHA home mortgage, you should also visit HUD’s website for refunds. You might have a refund waiting there for you. If you’d like to go all out, you can also search another database that state governments have created at www.unclaimed.org.