Dispose of unclaimed balances #1205
Comments
|
|
Had a call with MarketSphere. They specialize in handling filings for unclaimed property but are not lawyers. The person I talked with was going to recommend some lawyers who could go over our terms and advise us on our liability. From an unclaimed property point of view, it's unfortunate that don't have national identification info for everyone we're holding money for. At this point in a "clean environment" (i.e., w/ identification on file) we would send hard-copy paper letters to the last known address for everyone affected for three years before turning over the list of names/addresses and dollar amounts to the state of the last known address. For international or unknown people the property reverts to our state of incorporation, namely the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The fact that we don't have national identification information on file is a red flag, and could potentially lead to an "unclaimed property audit." Pennsylvania would be the most likely to be interested in conducting an audit, though the person I spoke with considered our exposure to be "minimal" and an audit to be "extremely unlikely." They went so far as to suggest, after I mentioned Readability (btw, archive: .org, .png), that donating the money in a well-documented fashion would be an option worth considering. (Again, not a lawyer.) However, donating the money would create liability for whomever we were donating it to: we'd have to be up-front with them about the source of the funds and make sure they were okay with it. I think both the letter and the spirit of the law suggest that we give the money to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So basically what we'll do is make a one-time filing with the Commonwealth. The general expectation is that companies who file, file year after year, so we need to make clear that we're closing up shop and this will be our one and only filing, relinquishing all of our liability, and that there won't be any future filings. We'll give them what we have: usernames, email addresses, social media accounts, dollar amounts, and transaction dates. We'll send the money via wire/ACH/check. We'll include a narrative describing the source of the funds and our attempts to notify owners and return the money. Even though the dormancy period is not up we can "force file" because we are going out of business. Hopefully we can get this done in Q1 2018. |
|
I've received from MarketSphere a list of law firms that specialize in unclaimed property. |
|
Where we have an email address, we can try sending via PayPal even if not explicitly linked to PayPal. |
|
Looks like that's only about 10%. :-/ |
|
|
I reimbursed myself the $420 via a cash withdrawal from New Alliance. |
|
I note that the tax situation for recipients is as muddy as ever. We are the payment processor, not the employer/contracting company. Is it better to push the money back upstream? 🤔 |
|
Because technically the money was income to people the moment they received it through Gittip/Gratipay, whether or not they reported it. Now it's just a pain. 😞 Would it be less inconvenient for the people who gave it originally to receive it back? I am revisiting the idea of donating it to open source non-profits. |
|
I sent money to one account under #1225 and emailed the other 12. |
|
By quartile: |
alter table tmp add column bucket int default 0;
update tmp set bucket=0 where balance > 0 and balance <= 69;
update tmp set bucket=1 where balance > 69 and balance <= 227;
update tmp set bucket=2 where balance > 227 and balance <= 838.50;
update tmp set bucket=4 where balance > 838.50;
alter table tmp add column has_email bool default false;
update tmp
set has_email=true
where coalesce(address_1, address_2, address_3, address_4, address_5) is not null
;
select count(balance) n, sum(balance) s from tmp group by bucket order by bucket desc;
select count(balance) n, sum(balance) s from tmp where has_email group by bucket order by bucket desc;#!/usr/bin/env python3
import csv
from collections import OrderedDict
from decimal import Decimal as D
payouts = csv.reader(open('payouts.csv'))
masspay = csv.writer(open('masspay.csv', 'w+'))
headers = next(payouts)
blacklist = set(open('blacklist.csv').read().splitlines())
TOTAL = total = settled = D('0.00')
amounts = []
for row in payouts:
paid, balance = bool(int(row[0])), D(row[1])
amounts.append(balance)
TOTAL += balance
if paid:
settled += balance
continue
addresses = list(OrderedDict.fromkeys(row[4:]))
for address in addresses:
if not address or address in blacklist:
continue
masspay.writerow([address, balance, 'usd'])
total += balance
break
print(f'{settled} / {total} ({(settled / total * 100):.1f}%)')
# Print out quartiles
quartile = TOTAL / 4
current = quartile
print(TOTAL, quartile)
running = D('0.00')
amounts.sort()
j = 0
def log():
print(f"{current:>9.02f} {running:>9.02f} {i-j:>4d} {amount:>7.02f}")
for i, amount in enumerate(amounts):
if running >= current:
log()
current += quartile
j = i
running += amount
log() |
|
Based on #1205 (comment) I think we should manually reach out (#1225) to the top two quartiles. Sending another 67 emails in order to clear another 25% of the escrow is a good trade-off. From there we can move back to #1219 for the bottom half. |
|
It seems like I should spin Gratipay.com back up locally and track these exchanges so we have a clear record. |
|
|
Alright! MassPay Number 1 is done! Well, started. It looks like we successfully sent $31k+ (30%) right off the bat, with another $11k (10%) still potentially to be claimed. We're now down to 1700 that aren't done and have no email. Here's the breakdown: The buckets are:
I think I'll take a pass through buckets 2 and 3 and clear low-hanging fruit. |
|
Note that the "done" amount of $59k includes $9k in pending payouts to the five top-13 folks that are actually still pending (#1225) though I've made initial contact with four and have a plan for the fifth. |
|
The no email numbers are a little fudgy, another way I counted them I got 1650. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
|
|
^^^ Table updated with some estimates of what we'll be able to flush. Target: 2/3! 👍 |
|
I think I can surpass $3,066.12 for Excelsior! |
|
This has been wildly successful. I am grateful for that. |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/b0a9f5b380eeec492b68363e6ab2b187f0afb6e2 |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/82ac4d9ab3bf6da73436d6253bb2d87207dddf37 |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/14d98e9e0141b21efbad78d3f63228c2271e0809 |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/2403c60633f92ca07c39b68147ced6965ff6bc24 |
|
Fourth MasspPay complete. Should we run a fifth? 🤔 https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/5a22ac902fa1ffeac96602a31f3de1cd47985c6c |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/86975b1e74c022e353f1819d68fd31da7c701eb1 I actually double-paid this $97 because the person released two things on Patreon and I didn't pay close enough attention. 😞 |
|
Yes! 💃 https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/af4c02fd45253b8fc2cc8b1055adc520523be968 |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/4161aa3c871f4d2a80d08f8c2d6e78f19b6d508a |
👍 |
|
https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/9f83d60085d3dc35c6ef29847355cda1f45a1049 I think there is going to be one failure with one more email address to try, for < $10. I think I may skip or try manually. Almost done, just another month! 😬 |
|
Fifth MassPay completed. Not worth doing a sixth MassPay, we are down to two payouts, one for $1.34 and the other for 39¢. We are done with the big flush! Now to donate the rest ... https://github.com/gratipay/logs/commit/f9284b9043666c551cd53582767d167fff73f639 |
|
Regained access to New Alliance. Balance remaining is $13,223.95. |
|
That's $758.01 more than what is supposedly remaining post-payouts. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
|
Here is what I propose to donate:
|
|
There's another $4,080.05 in PayPal! 😲 That's $17,304.00 total, or $4,326 each when split four ways. I don't have a debit card for the New Alliance account, Liberapay, OSI, and FSF all accept PayPal. Perhaps Abstractions can, too? 🤔 |
|
Contacted Abstractions, and kicked off a transfer of all remaining funds to PayPal. Once that clears in a few days I will make the payouts!
|
|
Current proposal:
|
|
I didn't make it to New Alliance today and I'm not sure when I'll be able to. I ordered a new card from PayPal instead. When I tried using it before I wasn't able to in some cases. Also there is a $3,000 per day spending limit. So that'll be two transactions ... if DonorBox accepts PayPal Debit! 🙈 |
|
Money has cleared PayPal, balance is $17,304. Activated card, tried it on https://donorbox.org/codeandsupplyfund-abstractions2. Card declined. 😞 Using my personal credit card, will reimburse. |
Oh right! Probs why declined. 😬 |
|
|
|
Reimbursed myself. |
|
One down, three to go. I wanted to get Abstractions done today because it is the last day of the conference. I will try to follow up with the other three this weekend. |
|
Donation to Liberapay complete. |
|
Donation to OSI complete. |
|
|
|
P.S. Donation to FSF also complete. 😬 !m * 💃 |
Reticketing from #1196.
maybe wait 30 days and do a third MassPay? Need to look at amounts ...probably not going to be worth it: Dispose of unclaimed balances #1205 (comment)The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: