(a) Any person who willfully fails to render any report or perform other duties, including use of the report format described in Section 1530, required under this chapter shall be punished by a fine of one hundred dollars ($100) for each day such report is withheld or such duty is not performed, but not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
§ 1576.Willfully Failing to Render Report; Willfully Refusing to Pay Or Deliver Escheated Property
Title 10. Unclaimed Property · Chapter 7. Unclaimed Property Law · Article 6. Compliance and Enforcement · Last amended 1997 · Last verified July 29, 2026
In one sentenceSection 1576 fines a holder who willfully fails to file a required report or perform other duties $100 per day up to $10,000, fines willful refusal to deliver escheated property between $5,000 and $50,000, and treats a failure as willful only after the holder ignores a certified-mail notice from the Controller.
Full Text of § 1576
(b) Any person who willfully refuses to pay or deliver escheated property to the Controller as required under this chapter shall be punished by a fine of not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) nor more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).
(c) No person shall be considered to have willfully failed to report, pay, or deliver escheated property, or perform other duties unless he or she has failed to respond within a reasonable time after notification by certified mail by the Controller's office of his or her failure to act.
Plain-English Summary
This section supplies the penalty for ignoring the reporting and delivery duties this chapter imposes. A holder who willfully fails to file a required report, or skips any other duty under this chapter, including using the report format Section 1530 prescribes, faces a fine of $100 for every day the report stays unfiled or the duty goes unperformed, capped at $10,000. Refusing outright to pay or deliver escheated property to the Controller draws a steeper penalty: a fine of at least $5,000 and up to $50,000.
Neither penalty attaches automatically just because a deadline was missed. A holder is only treated as having acted willfully if, after the Controller's office sends a certified-mail notice pointing out the failure, the holder still doesn't respond within a reasonable time. That gives a holder a chance to correct an oversight before the penalties take hold.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the penalty for willfully failing to file a required report?
A fine of $100 for each day the report is withheld, up to a maximum of $10,000.
What is the penalty for willfully refusing to deliver escheated property?
A fine of not less than $5,000 and not more than $50,000.
When does a holder's failure to act count as willful under this section?
Only after the holder fails to respond within a reasonable time following certified-mail notification from the Controller's office of the failure.
Does a holder get any warning before these penalties apply?
Yes. Certified-mail notice from the Controller's office and a reasonable opportunity to respond come before a failure is treated as willful.
Amendment History
Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 762, Sec. 10. Effective January 1, 1997.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 29, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: penalty for failing to report unclaimed propertyfine for refusing to deliver escheated property