Business Escheatment Audit

Two questions, and most companies only ever think about the first. What has the State got of yours — and what are you holding that should have been reported to it?

Last reviewed 5 September 2026 Written from State Controller, State Controller data Everything here is checkable without asking us.

Property Owed to You

Uncashed vendor cheques, refunded deposits, closed accounts and unapplied credits accumulate quietly. A company that has traded for two decades has almost certainly left something behind — under its legal name, a DBA, an abbreviation, or a predecessor entity.

Property You May Owe

California requires holders to report and remit unclaimed property. Uncashed payroll, customer credits and refunded deposits are the usual culprits. Reviewing this before anyone asks is considerably more comfortable than reviewing it afterwards.

The State is explicit that this is an annual obligation, not something triggered by a letter: businesses are required to review their records each year to determine whether they hold property, tangible or intangible, that has gone unclaimed for its dormancy period. Most companies we speak to have never done it once.

The Reporting Calendar

There are two tracks, and which one you are on depends only on whether you are a life insurer. Both run on fixed dates every year.

California holder reporting deadlines, as published by the State Controller
Business type	Notice report due	SCO sends owner notices	Remit report due
Life insurance	Before 1 May	Mid-October	1–15 December
All other businesses	Before 1 November	Mid-April	1–15 June

Extension requests are due no later than thirty days before the report due date. The gap between the two reports is deliberate: you tell the State what you hold, the State writes to the owners, and only what nobody claims is actually remitted.

Late Reporting Costs 12 Per Cent a Year

Code of Civil Procedure §1577 charges interest at twelve per cent per annum on property that should have been reported and was not, running from the date it was due — not from the date anyone notices. On a decade of uncashed payroll that is not a rounding error.

The same section provides the way out. Under the Controller’s Voluntary Compliance Program, a holder who applies, completes the required training and meets the deadlines set for them has that interest waived. Section 1577(d) says the Controller shall waive it — not may. The programme runs year-round and you can apply at any time.

The arithmetic is not subtle. A company that self-reports through the VCP pays what it owed. A company that waits to be found pays what it owed plus twelve per cent a year for every year it waited.

What an Audit Covers

Both directions, because they draw on the same records and it makes no sense to pay for the exercise twice.

What You Are Owed

A search under every historical name, DBA, abbreviation and predecessor entity
Merged and acquired entities, whose property is often still filed under the old name
A review of outstanding cheque registers and unapplied credits
An assessment of what is claimable and what it is likely worth

What You May Hold

Uncashed payroll and commission cheques, by age against their dormancy period
Customer credits, refunds and deposits never returned
Accounts payable written back to income, which is where this most often hides
Rebate, gift and stored-value balances, which have their own rules
A written summary you can hand to your accountant, with dates against the calendar above

Where Companies Are Usually Wrong

Writing a stale cheque back to income does not extinguish the obligation. The money still belongs to whoever it was written to, and the write-back is frequently the very entry that shows an auditor how long it has been outstanding. It is the single most common finding, and it is nearly always an accounting habit rather than an attempt to keep anything.

Reporting Obligations Are Not Our Advice to Give

We can tell you what we find, and we can tell you what the State publishes. Whether and how you should report as a holder, and whether the Voluntary Compliance Program is right for your situation, is a question for your accountant or attorney. We are not a law firm and we will not pretend otherwise — but you should be having the conversation with them holding a list, not a suspicion.

Check All of This Yourself

None of the above is proprietary. It is the State Controller’s published guidance, and a finance team can work from it directly:

Report unclaimed property — the reporting calendar and who counts as a holder
Voluntary Compliance Program — the interest waiver, the application and the webinar
Reporting forms — the current forms, direct from the State
Training and tutorials — the Controller’s own holder training

How You Are Protected

Our fee is capped at ten per cent of what is recovered by Code of Civil Procedure §1582, and nothing is owed until the State Controller has paid you. If we recover nothing, you owe nothing. Our recovery fee is never asked for up front — it comes out of money the Controller has already paid you. A booking deposit on an in-person appointment is a separate thing, and is credited back against anything you are charged.

California Unclaimed Property Services is a private asset recovery firm. We are not the California State Controller’s Office.

Sources

This page is written from the public record. Read the originals rather than taking our summary of them.

We are a private firm. We are not the State Controller’s office, not affiliated with it, and not endorsed by it.

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