John Coalson’s insight was featured extensively in a Florida Times-Union article discussing the Georgia Department of Revenue’s holding of unclaimed property. That state agency currently holds $684 million in unclaimed property, though consumers only collected $12 million of that last year.
Coalson, who specializes in the field, said, “When [unclaimed property laws] are used the way they are intended, which is as a mechanism to help reunite property owners with their lost or abandoned property, then I think they’re a good thing. When they’re used as a means for states to simply raise money, then I think states ought to call a tax ‘a tax’ and not just take people’s property.”