New Unused Credit Policy

[Guest]

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[waywardcats]

We should find out if such a website and search function is available in California.

Dan

Yes it is.  That would be the Califonia State Controllers Office Unclaimed Property Division

The searchable database is here.

-Kerry-

[AccountAbility]

Maybe Kiva should add a question to its Q & A section:

Q: "I haven't visited my Kiva lender account in a couple of years.  I know I should have some credits but I can't find them.  Where did they go?"
A: Kiva turned them over to the State of California as required by law.  You can claim them from the following website."   

Dan

[CESOus]

OK, I don't think this is exactly where this question should go, but I can't seem to figure out how to post a "new" question (or thread?) in this forum.  Please feel free to direct me to the appropriate place and process.  We gave a $25 Kiva gift certificate about a year ago.  The recipient has no intention of using it.  It will shortly become a donation to Kiva, which is OK with us.  The question is whether or not we can then receive a tax credit for this donation, and if so, how do we go about obtaining it?  Thanks for clarifying.

[Diane R]

While I cannot answer your question regarding tax deductibility of an unused Kiva gift certificate (GC), I can tell you how to find the code for the GC and redeem it yourself for your own use, after which you may choose to contribute the funds and receive a tax receipt.

Sign into the Kiva account from which you purchased the GC.  In your My Portfolio page, you'll see a link near the top which reads "Gift Certificates".  When you click that, you will see a list called "My Gift Certificates" -- it defaults to showing you the GCs which you purchased for others.  Look through that list (by default this is sorted by date) until you find the GC you purchased for this recipient; it will show as not redeemed.  Copy or write down the 13-digit code for that unredeemed certificate, and go back to the upper part of that page and click on the link that says "Redeem".  Enter that 13-digit code and the email address associated with your Kiva account (which purchased the GC in the first place) and you may redeem the GC yourself.  It will become Kiva Credit for that lending account immediately, and you may use it to fund loans yourself or donate it directly to Kiva.  If you do the latter, you WILL get a receipt for tax purposes. (You may also request a withdrawal if you would prefer, and the money will be returned to the Paypal account of your choice).

If you are certain this individual will not be redeeming this GC, you might as well look up the code and cash it yourself.  Then if you do want it to become a donation, there is a clear path to receiving a receipt for that donation.

EDIT:  I just looked at your profile and I see you are in Canada.  Tax deductibility for donations to Kiva is only available for US citizens/taxpayers at this time.  There has been talk about extending that to other countries, but so far this has not changed.  Sorry...

Hope that's clear,
--Diane.

[CESOus]

This is a perfectly clear, informative answer and good advice.  Many thanks.  Is it true that you have made over 3000 posts to this Forum?  That's amazing!  (Regarding the edit that was added to your reply: Although we live in Canada, we are also U.S. taxpayers.)

[AccountAbility]

We shall have to see how the auto-lending feature affects the requirements for escheating inactive funds to the state.  As I said in the Terms of Use thread, all I know is that having my bank automatically reinvest my interest will not delay the escheat requirements.

Of course, having a positive election to make a donation with unused credits is a different issue.

Dan

[AccountAbility]

Since this is a pinned thread, and the Updated Terms of Use thread that John created has two topics going on -- one about the issue of basket activity and the other about escheat and the devices Kiva is building to avoid it, I thought I would post here about the escheat issues.

Practically speaking in 99% of the cases, we are talking about California law requiring businesses and organizations doing business in the state to turn over inactive funds they hold to a state managed escrow type account until they are successfully claimed by a person who can demonstrate that the funds were theirs. 

A link to the website is provided in a previous post on this thread. You can even look on behalf of your friends and relatives-- but you will have to get them to make the claim if they have funds awaiting them.  These claims can be made by any person regardless of residence.  Persons outside the US should still be able to make a claim.

Of course this is similar in many if not most states in the US.  The internet has made this quite accessible.

Dan

EDIT: If the moderators can arrange these posts in a better way to keep discussions grouped together, please feel free to move this post.

[AccountAbility]

Kiva current Terms of Use section 1.8

... [If] (i) you have not indicated an instruction to Kiva through an inactivity preference selection described above or (ii) your instructions to have remaining balances returned to you cannot be successfully completed, whether due to invalid/incomplete information, your not claiming the funds after thirty (30) calendar days have passed from the day Kiva has forwarded the funds to you, a return of funds back to Kiva as unclaimed after Kiva has attempted to forward your funds to you, or for any other reason internal or external to Kiva, then Kiva may determine it is appropriate to forward (i.e., escheat) the balance remaining in your inactive Kiva account to the state government of your state of residency. In such a case, Kiva will determine your residency based on the state listed in your mailing address information that may have previously been made available to us.

It is not clear about the method for the forwarding of funds to an inactive lender-- whether it will be through PayPal or to the "mailing address information that may have previously been made available" to Kiva.  If through PayPal, those who don't have a PayPal account will go unclaimed for the thirty (30) days.

It is unclear where Kiva keeps mailing address information, since after the initial registration, only the city and state are available for a lender to see or change.  Did all initial registrations include a mailing address?  It's been too long for me to remember.

Dan

[Robert]

It is unclear where Kiva keeps mailing address information, since after the initial registration, only the city and state are available for a lender to see or change.  Did all initial registrations include a mailing address?  It's been too long for me to remember.

Dan

That is the information available in "My Lender Page". But there is more. The full address is stored under the header "My Account" (which does not contain account information, because that is under the header "My Credit").

Login > My Account > Mailing Address: I can view and change everything I want to. And the icing on the cake is that even the non-ASCII character in my street name is correctly displayed!

Robert

[AccountAbility]

Thanks for pointing that out. I am almost certain that has been a more recent addition (like sometime in the last two years?)

Dan