Which, if true, is really dumb. The best thing that can happen to the vendor is for the card to never be used. Or is there some busybody agency that collects all that money, like with an idle bank account?
It is part of GAAP, it is seen as simply exchanging one piece of currency for another. In other words, the way GAAP sees it, it is like exchanging two ten dollar bills for a twenty. They can’t count it as a sale until the twenty is exchanged for an actual good or service. You can’t count the exchange of currency as a twenty dollar transaction because you have actually not increased your net.
Like I said, it is a convoluted mass of rules.
Absolutely. State unclaimed property laws will get the money from the unused cards.