What happens if a check is never cashed

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If you still have the cheque in your possession or it's returned to you, of course, then you can destroy it yourself and be confident that it can't be deposited. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Never-cashed cheques Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 4 months ago. Active 9 months ago. Viewed 1k times. A scenario: You pay someone with a cheque for something, receiving a receipt for it. EDIT: as asked for in the comments, my country is Canada. Improve this question. You need to specify a country - different countries will have different laws about this. To play it safe, you could always issue a "stop payment" after a certain amount of time has passed.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Do checks expire if not cashed? Is there a statute of limitations on uncashed checks? What do I do with expired checks? Can I cash an old IRS check? Can I cash a check that has Void written on it? Do bank checks expire? Is it OK to use a check with an old address?

How do I know if I cashed a check? Can I see who cashed my check? Do cashed checks show up on bank statements? If you have a question you'd like our team to tackle for you, send it to questionzero alignable. This question was sent in by a business owner working through an issue that you, yourself, may have faced:. We're reaching out to a number of local business experts with experience in accounting software to get their insights and welcome additional comments from others on Alignable.

We'll add their commentary below. Yes it is ok to write off a check after 12 months if it hasn't been cashed.

Technically banks are only required to honor checks less than 6 months in aging, so you'd be safe even doing it sooner. However with certain payments you need to be careful, such as with payroll checks. Payroll checks that have "aged out" need to be reported to the State of Washington Dept.

It's an involved and annoying process so I recommend keeping up to date info on your payroll people. You also have to be careful not to just "void" the checks in your accounting system; they need to be adjusted in a way that doesn't upset the reconciliation of your bank accounts, credit cards or payroll returns. If the check was paid to a vendor, then yes.

However, if it is a payroll check, you must also register it on the state website as unclaimed property with the payee's SSN once you've decided to adjust it on the books. The person should check on the Escheatment Laws of their state.

Although Escheatment normally pertains to funds that are held such as in a credit union, or savings institution in the case of inactive accounts. If the amount is relatively small, I see no problem in writing it off. However, if the person should appear later and request the funds, I think they have a legal obligation to do so. If the amount is large, it should be written off and recorded as a liability.

A lot of "ifs" involved here. I have been retired from active accounting for quite a few years, so practices and laws might have changed. Yes, if a check has not been cashed, you can write it off. Depending on the accounting software you are using, be careful to not just go back and void the check on the original date.

This would cause your prior year's books to be off by the amount of the check.