Report to California and Puerto Rico
Learn how to report unclaimed property in California and Puerto Rico, including preliminary and final business reports.
For Puerto Rico, preliminary reporting is only required if your business's state of incorporation is Puerto Rico. If your business is not incorporated in Puerto Rico but you report property there, you must change the property's status to Preliminary (L). Then create and submit a final business remittance report.
For more information on California's reporting requirements, read the California unclaimed property reporting guidelines.
Create and submit a preliminary business notice report
Preliminary business notice reports include details about unclaimed properties and owners. After you submit this type of report, you should not submit payment to the states.
In California, this is called a holder notice report. In Puerto Rico, this is called an initial report. In the software, we call both preliminary business notice reports.
Preliminary business notice reports only include properties with an Open (O) or Make reportable (F) status.
- To submit preliminary business notice reports, follow the first three steps of creating and submitting a regular report.
- On the pop-up to select a report type, select California/Puerto Rico preliminary business notice report and click Continue.
- Complete steps 4-7 to create and submit the report.
Update properties
After you submit a preliminary business notice report or supplemental business notice report, the states notify the owners that you reported. California and Puerto Rico use this process to encourage owners to claim their property. Owners can respond to these notices and submit a claim for their property. If this happens, you need to return the property to the owner, change the property's status to Paid to owner (P), and archive it.
Read more about what to do if an owner claims their property.
Send due diligence letters (CA only)
If you submitted a preliminary business notice report to California, you need to create and send due diligence letters to try to contact the owner.
Find state-specific due diligence requirements in the Due Diligence by State document on the Compliance Resources page.
Create and submit a final business remittance report
Final business remittance reports have details about unclaimed properties and owners, including any updates made to the properties since submitting a preliminary business notice report. After reporting, you need to submit payment to the states.
Only property submitted in a preliminary business notice report should be included in the final business remittance report. If you identify more unclaimed properties after submitting a preliminary business notice report, do not include those properties in your final remittance report. Instead, create and submit a supplemental business notice report, which starts a new cycle of owner notice and reporting.
Final business remittance reports only include properties with a Preliminary (L) or Make reportable (F) status.
- To submit final business remittance reports, follow the first three steps to create and submit a regular report.
- On the pop-up to select a report type, choose California/Puerto Rico final remittance report and click Continue.
- Complete steps 4-7 to create and submit the report.
After submitting, the properties' statuses automatically change to Reported (R) and they are moved to the Archived tab on the Properties page.
Create and submit a supplemental business notice report
If you identified more unclaimed properties after submitting your preliminary business notice report but before before submitting a final business remittance notice report, you must submit a supplemental business notice report. This report starts a new cycle of owner notice and reporting.
You only need to submit a supplemental business notice report if you identify more unclaimed properties after submitting a preliminary business notice report but before submitting a final business remittance notice report.
Supplemental business notice reports only include properties with an Open (O) or Make reportable (F) status.
- To submit supplemental business notice reports, follow the first three steps to create and submit a regular report.
- On the pop-up to select a report type, select California/Puerto Rico supplemental business notice report and click Continue.
- Complete steps 4-7 to create and submit the report.
After submitting, the properties' statuses automatically change to Supplemental (S).
Create and submit a supplemental final business notice report
You only need to submit a supplemental final business remittance report if you submitted a supplemental business notice report.
Supplemental final business remittance reports only include properties with a Supplemental (S) or Make reportable (F) status.
- To submit supplemental final business remittance reports, follow the first three steps to create and submit a regular report.
- On the pop-up to select a report type, select California/Puerto Rio supplemental final remittance report and click Continue.
- Complete steps 4-7 to create and submit the report.
After submitting, the properties' statuses automatically change to Reported (R) and they are moved to the Archived tab on the Properties page.