Posted on 12/25/2006 9:13:03 AM PST by rellimpank
He says expired gift card money should flow to treasury
Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, would like to see expiring gift card money flow to the state treasury by defining it as abandoned property. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
CARSON CITY -- Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen went out to dinner with a friend recently, planning to use a $100 gift card he had received last year as a Christmas gift to pay for the meal.
To Kihuen's dismay, the gift card had expired, meaning the high-end restaurant that issued the card had received a $100 windfall at the expense of the gift card giver.
Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, said he would like to change this practice and instead have expired gift card money flow to the state treasury by defining it as abandoned property.
If a merchant has no address
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I've never tasted any, based totally on the whiff - it's too similar to an automobile battery that's perking away on the charger.
In California there can be no expiration of a gift card.
Find a 4 year old gift card at the bottom of a drawer
then go use it --- usually no problem.
Gift card money should never, ever expire for as long as the companies exist, and this should be true throughout the U.S. and U.S. territories!
How about the difference between retail price and the sale price of an item. The difference in price is "unclaimed" by the retailer and should go to the State.
The government is going insane.
"..the "Thoughtful gift" department."
Giving cash, I would agree with you but not gift cards.
I give gifts to the grandkids; there is nothing like watching small faces light up when a present is opened, and they always announce well ahead of time what they want Santa to bring.
Adults are a different story. I either don't know what to get for my grown kids or, if I do, I can't afford it. I do, however, know which stores they like to shop and a card for the right store at least says I pay attention. Then they can at least get something they really want and no one keeps a gift they don't want for fear of hurting your feeling if they return it.
I try not to let "The Man Show" be the guideline on how I conduct my life (at least most of the time).
If you really wanted to stick it to Starbucks, you should have just sold the gift card on eBay and used the funds for something else...like a visit to the Heart Attack Grill in Phoenix, Arizona. You get my point, hopefully.
By throwing the card away, or by buying their coffee and pouring it out on the sidewalk, they get the money that ought to be yours. That gift card has cash value!
Standing right there with ya Brother (or sister, whatever) Why should the gov't get this or any of this money??!!!! The steal and waste enough of our money as it is.
I believe that I'll continue to send either physical gifts or checks from now on. The advantage for the recipient is that the check spends anywhere, and it's value, though slowly reduced by inflation, does not expire.
It's very simple. Because the Bank was the one who put itself at risk to 'store' the money in the first place.
Do you think the state would come in and make the 'storee' (the person who stored the moeny at the bank) whole if the money wasn't there when he showed up to claim it? Of course not, that transaction wwould be completed by an instituion the bank hired to insure the stored money, probably the FDIC.
The logic you put forth assume the everyting belongs to the state in the first place, and we are only using it by their good graces. A very liberal position.
According to the liberal mindset, the government is charity. Which strongly supports the notion that the conservatives give more money to charity than do liberals in general.
I agree with the other guy. I can buy a pound of good coffee and enjoy what coffee is supposed to taste like for the same price, or go to any donut shop and get a donut with better coffee for half the price.
People go to starbucks because it's a fad, they like to carry around a cup that says "starbucks" on it. That is vanity, and is a very "liberal" thing to do.
I really thought I knew where it was, in my desk.
I was gonna give it back to my brother this year.
expiration or not.
Thanks....I've taken a lot of incoming flamage on this thread, over my opinion and "unsophisticated" taste in coffee
I'm waiting to see if she can figure out how to cover the logo...
Contact paper :)
Well...well...well,
I guess I'll respond but I must defend myself. I don't particularly agree with the logic of unclaimed property but simply wanted to point out the original logic, at least I understand it, of the law.
I do think most unclaimed property statutes allow the business to claim some "cost" for keeping the property, to help explain your contention that the bank,using them as example, assumed some cost in maintaining the property, loses money on the deal. But I sure don't know how fair the rules are or do I know the unclaimed property laws of all the states.
Another reason unclaimed property is a bigger deal than most people think is because of federal contractors.
See, a federal contractor is originally PAID by the taxpayers in some fashion. Thus federal contractors are watched closely (except, heh, maybe in Murtha's district) that every dime they get comes back to the federal government. If a fed contractor applied to be reimbursed to pay a vendor, for example, and that vendor went out of business or the vendor couldn't be paid for some strange reason, well the money paid to the contractor does not belong to them; it belongs to the government, ie the taxpayers.
I'm serious here. A lot of these unclaimed property laws are aimed at government entities and such. I worked for a government owned hospital AND a federal contractor. It's politics, a behind the scene kind of thing.
But like every other law ever enacted, it gets to be ridiculous.
I can't believe I'm writing this stuff on Christmas day but hey, I deserve something for having filled out all those forms over the years. And I can tell you that the government recoups big money back from federal contractors , that is if God is in his heaven and the Dems aren't in charge.
It's just a perspective is all. Have a Merry Christmas.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Gift cards should never expire. This law would have the effect of ensuring that that happens. Why would a seller let a card expire if he will have to pay the government cash money. It would be much better if the seller simply sold cards that never expire because the seller keeps the purchase money interest free until the receiver spends it or forever. Any seller that still has expiring gift cards after this law goes into effect deserves to have to pay cash to the government.
A lot of "gift cards" are problematic in that they either must be used for the full amount, i.e. there is no change given back in cash or otherwise. This clown just wants to scoop it up for the state. That's looking out for his constituents!
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