Library note
Rent-exemption lamports and closing an empty token account
An empty token balance still sits in an account that holds lamports. Those lamports paid for rent exemption. Closing is how they come back.
A zero token amount still leaves the account
On Solana, accounts that store data must hold enough lamports to be rent-exempt, or they are subject to rent collection. A token account is one of those accounts. Creating it sets aside that deposit. Sending the entire token amount elsewhere leaves the account in place, still initialized, still holding the lamports.
Readers often say the account is empty because the token balance reads zero. At the desk we split the sentence. The token amount is zero. The account remains, and the lamports are still there. Until someone closes it, the deposit stays with the account.
Who may close, and where the lamports go
CloseAccount on the SPL Token program requires the token amount to be zero and a signature from the close authority. If that field is unset, the owner signs. The instruction also names a destination for the lamports. That destination is usually the wallet that should receive the deposit back. It is a field of the instruction, so it is worth reading before you approve anything on a screen you trust.
A delegate who can move tokens cannot, by that fact alone, close the account. Delegate and close authority are different seats. We write them on separate lines for that reason.
When we ask a reader to wait
We ask readers to wait if the state is frozen, if a delegate is still set and they do not remember approving it, or if the close authority is an address they cannot explain. Closing is final for that account address. A later receipt of the same mint needs a token account again, associated or otherwise, and a new rent-exemption deposit.
None of this is a reason to close in a hurry, and none of it is a reason to leave forgotten deposits scattered if you do hold the right signature. The desk session spends its last minutes on this choice because it is where careful readers either relax or find the one address they still need to identify.