Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) will still retire the capital credit of the member but will not mail out a check. The cooperative will list on its website all past members who currently have unclaimed retired capital credit monies.
If you believe that you, or a person you are a legal beneficiary of, have unclaimed capital credits, go to our Unclaimed Capital Credits page and submit the online form to begin the process of validating your claim.
Capital credits that are not claimed after 3 years are reallocated to the current year’s membership. This allows the cooperative to keep the ownership stake of the cooperative in the community.
SVEC does not retire the remaining capital credits in lump sums. The capital credits can be transferred to up to 3 beneficiaries who will continue to receive the capital credits retirement until the capital credits are exhausted and the member no longer has an ownership stake in the cooperative.
At the end of each year, the board of SVEC determines if the cooperative is in a financial position to retire capital credits. There are certain requirements the cooperative must meet before the board can consider retiring capital credits. Fortunately, for more than the past 20 years, the cooperative has been able to retire capital credits to the membership every year.
The cooperative does not retire capital credits in lump sums. Capital credits are retired over time as they are replaced by other members’ more recent capital credits.
SVEC’s residential members do not need to report payments of retired capital credits as income when they file their taxes. Commercial members, however, should consult their tax adviser regarding the taxable nature of their capital credits.