Uniform Law Commission Archives

Uniform Law Commission

Déjà Vu – Marketplace Model Debate May Resume Again

by Diann Smith, Stephen P. Kranz and McDermott Will & Emery | Apr 20, 2020 | Nationwide Importance, Nexus, Sales Tax, Transaction Taxes

The debate over state marketplace laws may resume again, after the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) announced it has set up a committee to study whether to draft a uniform state law on online sales tax collection, focusing on marketplaces. The study committee is chaired by Utah Sen. Lyle Hillyard. The lead staffer (“reporter”) will be Professor Adam Thimmesch of the University of Nebraska College of Law. The members of the committee are listed here and information to sign up to be notified of developments is available here.

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Illinois Unclaimed Property Law Substantially Revised As Part of Revenue Package Supporting Illinois Budget

by Diann Smith and Eric D. Carstens | Jul 7, 2017 | Illinois, Unclaimed Property

Yesterday the Illinois House of Representatives voted to override Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of Senate Bill (SB) 9, the revenue bill supporting the State’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-2018 Budget. Just days before the vote, SB 9 was amended to include a revised version of the Illinois Unclaimed Property Bill (House Bill (HB) 2603) on which we’ve previously reported. The new law (part of Public Act 100-0022) is known as the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA). The RUUPA becomes effective January 1, 2018. Below is a brief summary of a few of the highlights of which holders should be aware.

Gift Cards, Loyalty Cards and Game-Related Digital Content Exempt

Unlike HB 2603, the Illinois RUUPA expressly excludes “gift cards” from the definition of “property” subject to escheat. Pulling (in-part) from the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) definition, “gift card” is defined in the Illinois RUUPA as “a stored-value card: (i) issued on a prepaid basis in a specified amount; (ii) the value of which does not expire; (iii) that is not subject to a dormancy, inactivity, or service fee; (iv) that may be decreased in value only by redemption for merchandise, goods, or services upon presentation at a single merchant or an affiliated group of merchants; and (v) that, unless required by law, may not be redeemed for or converted into money or otherwise monetized by the issuer.” (more…)

Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act Finalized for State Enactment—Legislative Drafting Notes and Interpretative Comments Added

by Diann Smith, Eric D. Carstens and Stephen P. Kranz | Nov 18, 2016 | Audits, Constitutional Issues, Nationwide Importance, Procedure, Unclaimed Property

The fourth iteration of a uniform unclaimed property act—entitled the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA or Act)—has been finalized by the Uniform Law Commission for state enactment. The new Prefatory Note, Legislative Notes, and Comments components offer further explanatory guidance on the Act.

Read the full article.

Uniform Law Commission Completes First Reading of the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act

by Diann Smith, Eric D. Carstens and Stephen P. Kranz | Jul 20, 2015 | Audits, Nationwide Importance, Procedure, Unclaimed Property

On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, at their Annual Meeting the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) completed their first reading of the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA or the Act). While over half of the sections comprising the current draft of the Act were passed over due to strict time constraints imposed by the ULC President Harriet Lansing, the RUUPA Drafting Committee (Committee) did their best to focus the time they did have on sections they felt were most in need of feedback from the ULC Commissioners (Commissioners) as a whole. The Committee even went so far as to invite discussion by allowing American Bar Association (ABA) Advisors and National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) to explain their stances on hot button issues such as the derivative rights doctrine, life insurance provisions and the inclusion of a business-to-business exemption. Despite this attempt, Commissioner feedback was sparse (to non-existent) for a majority of the reading and was often technical in nature when provided. While over 250 of the 400 Commissioners were present at the Annual Meeting, only about half of those present attended the morning session of the RUUPA reading. After a lunch break, the afternoon session of the reading was even more sparsely attended, with less than 100 Commissioners present. While the turnout and participation was not ideal, the Committee provided some guidance to the Commissioners that may be useful to interested parties going forward.

Highlights

Committee Co-Chair Rex Blackburn made it clear that they would be considering the application of the derivative right doctrine, which generally stands for the proposition that state unclaimed property administrators cannot receive greater rights than those of the true owner, on a property-type basis (as opposed to a blanket inclusion or exclusion). Aside from the short ABA-NAUPA debate on the issue, there was no substantive discussion of the derivate rights doctrine.
A return to the 1981 Act’s 10-year statute of repose was discussed. Commissioner Raymond Pepe noted that the Committee reverted back to this based on the widespread abuse of statistical sampling. Several Commissioners were supportive of this change, and even encouraged the Committee to shorten this period further since the statute does not begin running until after the report was due. Nebraska Commissioner Harvey Perlman suggested that the Committee simply limit the use of abusive statistical sampling instead of establishing a statute of repose. The Committee responded that a bright-line rule is necessary here to provide certainty.
The Committee confessed that the current section on the conduct of audits (Section 20) needs to be broken out into four distinct sections in the next draft. A majority of the discussion in this area was on the use of contingent fee contract auditors—which is permitted in the current draft with numerous protections that seek to enhance the transparency of this process. Connecticut Commissioner David Biklen suggested that his state would not be able to audit holders without the use of contract auditors and expressed concern [...]

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Currency Conversion Concerns: New York Issues Guidance on Virtual Currencies

by McDermott Will & Emery | Dec 23, 2014 | Income Tax, Nationwide Importance, New York, Sales Tax, Tax Base, Unclaimed Property

On December 5, 2014, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance (Department) released TSB-M-14(5)C, (7)I, (17)S. This (relatively short) bulletin sets forth the treatment of convertible virtual currency for sales, corporation and personal income tax purposes. The bulletin follows on a notice released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in March of this year, Notice 2014-21.

The IRS Notice indicates that, for federal tax purposes, the IRS will treat virtual currency as property, and will not treat it as currency for purposes of foreign currency gains or losses. Taxpayers must convert virtual currency into U.S. dollars when determining whether there has been a gain or loss on transactions involving the currency. When receiving virtual currency as payment, either for goods and services or as compensation, the virtual currency is converted into U.S. dollars (based on the fair market value of the virtual currency at the time of receipt) to determine the value of the payment.

The IRS Notice only relates to “convertible virtual currency.” Virtual currency is defined as a “digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and/or a store of value.” Convertible virtual currency is virtual currency that “has an equivalent value in real currency, or that acts as a substitute for real currency.”

The Department’s bulletin also addresses only convertible virtual currency, and uses a definition identical to the IRS definition. The Department indicates that it will follow the federal treatment of virtual currency for purposes of the corporation tax and personal income tax.

For sales and use tax purposes, the bulletin states that convertible virtual currency is intangible property and therefore not subject to tax. Thus, the transfer of virtual currency itself is not subject to tax. However, the exchange of virtual currency for products and services will be treated as a barter transaction, and the amount of tax due is calculated based on the fair market value of the virtual currency at the time of the exchange.

The Department should be applauded for issuing guidance on virtual currency. It appears that these types of currencies will be used more and more in the future, and may present difficult tax issues.

However, the Department’s guidance is incomplete. There are a couple of unanswered questions that taxpayers will still need to ponder.

First, the definition of convertible virtual currency is somewhat broad and unclear. The Department and the IRS define “convertible” virtual currency as currency that has an “equivalent” value in real currency, but equivalent is not defined in either the IRS Notice or the bulletin. Many digital products and services use virtual currency or points that cannot be legally exchanged for currency to reward users, and the IRS and the Department should be clearer about the tax treatment of those currencies.

Second, although the Department will follow the federal treatment for characterization and income recognition purposes, the bulletin does not discuss apportionment. This is likely a very small issue at this point in time, but the Department will, [...]

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Extraordinary Turnout and Discussions at ULC Unclaimed Property Drafting Meeting

by Diann Smith and Stephen P. Kranz | Nov 10, 2014 | Delaware, Nationwide Importance, Unclaimed Property

Failing to attend last week’s Uniform Law Commission’s (ULC’s) Drafting Committee meeting to revise the 1995 Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (the Act) was worse than missing the 2012 Extravakranza. On November 7 and 8, 2014, the Who’s Who of the Abandoned and Unclaimed Property world (AUP for insiders needing abbreviations for texting) met in Washington, D.C. for a two-day marathon to modernize state unclaimed property law. The chair of the committee noted that several thousand pages of comments had been received so far and that attendance at the meeting was greater than any other issue the ULC pursued other than the Uniform Commercial Code.

The attendees hailed from a wide variety of stakeholders including: representatives from more than 20 states; major third-party auditors including several representatives of Kelmar; numerous trade associations including representatives of the securities and the life insurance industries, and general business associations such as the Council on State Taxation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Several representatives from the state of Delaware were in attendance; Delaware is a state that has historically not adopted any of the Uniform Acts and is considered one of the most aggressive states in interpreting its unclaimed property laws to the detriment of holders.

As to the Act itself, no policy or language is set in stone at this point, but the Drafting Committee took votes on numerous issues in order to give the reporter (the person responsible for actually drafting potential language for the Act) guidance. The votes by the Drafting Committee were a mixed bag from a holder’s perspective, and a lot could still change before the final Act is adopted. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the Committee rejected banning states from using contract auditors as well as rejected banning states from using contingency fees to pay such auditors. The Committee also voted to allow both estimation and sampling in unclaimed property audits (though there was some confusion demonstrated by the Committee’s discussions and questions regarding the difference between these two). The Committee left discretion with the reporter regarding the inclusion of guidelines and limitations on use of such audit techniques. The Committee also rejected exempting from remittance low balance property – a proposal supported by the American Bar Association and a proposal that would be an administrative benefit to holders.

The Committee voted to change the interest provision on holders for unremitted balances from offering a flat rate option to solely a floating interest rate pegged to a T-bill + standard. Currently some states have interest rates of 12 percent and 18 percent. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators lobbied to leave the interest rate up to the individual states because every state has different investment profiles. This was ultimately a losing argument as it was noted that if any state is currently getting 12 percent or 18 percent on its investments, everyone wanted to know what that state was doing so they could do the same. The Committee also voted to include, for discussion purposes only, a draft [...]

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