Ohio Legislative Update (With Some Interesting Stats)

Recently, Ohio passed House Bill 353, which broadens the scope of the current exemptions for gift cards and gift certificates under the unclaimed property act.  Effective January 22, 2019 the bill will exempt certain "open-loop" prepaid cards, "closed-loop" prepaid cards, and rewards cards.  The revised legislation also exempts any "obligation" due to a retail customer (as opposed to just "credits").

As is often the case, a non-partisan legislative committee prepared a "Fiscal Note" regarding the potential economic impact of the new law.  That report, in turn, sets forth the amount of money reported to, and repaid by, the State of Ohio during the most recent five-year period.  For example, according to the Note, holders reported and remitted nearly $300 million to the state during Fiscal Year 2018.  During that same period, the state returned $97 million to owners.  Over the five year period 2014-2018, the state collected $1.4 billion (with a "b") from holders while returning approximately $425 million to owners.

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