Leawood, Kan. – March 29, 2024: Earlier this month, Oregon issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding unclaimed property holder compliance. Anyone wishing to make a comment to the Proposed Regulations must submit those by April 24, 2024, at 5:00 pm Pacific Time. Comments can be submitted to Kevin Willingham at kevin.willingham@ost.state.or.us. A hearing will also be held on Aprill 22, 2024. Participants can attend in person, via phone, or a Microsoft Teams meeting. Those instructions can be found in the Hearing Section of the Proposed Rulemaking, found here. The proposed regulations would become effective on June 23, 2024.
The Proposed Rulemaking amends several provisions, but this CARD Alert will focus on the changes to stored value card and to the unclaimed property due diligence notice requirements. The Proposed Rulemaking seeks to amend the definition “Intangible Property” by deleting the reference to gift cards. Specifically, the Proposed Rulemaking states: “’Intangible Property has the same meaning as ORS 98.302(7) and includes without limitation: (a) Stored value card balances or similar electronically maintained credit balances exempt gift cards as defined in ORS 646A.274.” See, Improving Holder Compliance, Protect Unclaimed Property and Confidential Information, and Implement Statutory Changes, Defining, 170-140 & 145 NOPR Published 031524 (proposed March 15, 2024) (to be codified at ORS 170-140-005 §13(a)). As you may recall, Oregon removed gift certificates from their unclaimed property statute in 1997. 1997 Oregon Laws Ch. 416 (H.B. 2591). As such, Oregon was viewed as a non-escheat state for gift cards until the regulations were amended in 2013. OAR 141-045-0010 (2014) (Amended – DSL 1-2014, f. 1-13-14, cert. ef. 2-1-14). After the amendment to regulations, some view Oregon requiring open loop gift cards to escheat to Oregon while others still view Oregon as a non-escheat state if the gift card is closed loop.
The Proposed Rulemaking also amends the unclaimed property due diligence requirements. We are currently interpreting the proposed changes to require the holder to send two unclaimed property due diligence notices if the owner fails to respond to the first unclaimed property due diligence notice within thirty days by the owner. See, Improving Holder Compliance, Protect Unclaimed Property and Confidential Information, and Implement Statutory Changes, Defining, 170-140 & 145 NOPR Published 031524 (proposed March 15, 2024) (to be codified at ORS 170-140-015 §5). It is also our current view that the Proposed Rulemaking will require the holder to send unclaimed property due diligence notices via email or standard mail depending on the primary method the owner uses to contact the holder. Id.
Card Compliant may submit comments to the state of Oregon regarding the Proposed Regulation and will continue to monitor Oregon for any changes to the Proposed Regulations.
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