Department of Revenue upgrades Unclaimed Property Program

Wisconsin Department of Revenue will begin implementing reforms that will modernize the state's Unclaimed Property Program. The upgrades to the Unclaimed Property Program are the result of reforms passed by the Legislature and approved by Governor Scott Walker. The DOR has estimated that around $14.7 million will be automatically matched to around 97,000 citizens.

Specifically, the new changes will allow the DOR to automatically match tax records with those Wisconsin residents that have unclaimed property. This is vastly different from the when records were manually searched. The new process will result in some unclaimed property owners getting a check from the state without having to deal with government red tape.

“The modernization of the Unclaimed Property Program was only made possible by moving the program out of the Office of the State Treasurer and into the Department of Revenue,” said August. “The program will now run much more efficiently than it ever did under the treasurer with fewer travel and promotional costs to the taxpayers.”

The DOR will begin running the new matching program this week. The checks are expected to start arriving in people's mailboxes at the end of the week. Individuals with claims of $5 to $2,000 will automatically receive a check. Those with claims over $2,000 would receive a letter with instructions on how to make an official claim. For more information visit: https://www.revenue.wi.gov/ucp/index.html