skip navigation
Here's how you know US flag signifying that this is a United States Federal Government website

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

SSL

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Federal Election Commission | United States of America
Example scenario

Aggregating independent expenditures

Independent expenditures (IEs) are aggregated together to meet reporting thresholds for 24 and 48-hour reports. Expenditures are aggregated:

  • Per-election
  • Within the calendar year, and
  • Per-office sought (race)

Calculating the aggregate amount of the independent expenditures includes both disbursements for independent expenditures and all contracts obligating funds for disbursements of independent expenditures.

These examples illustrate how aggregating on a per-election basis, within the calendar year, per-office sought works.

In each case, a committee is making the IEs within the same calendar year and within the 48-hour reporting period.

A committee makes $1,000 in IEs supporting a Senate candidate in the primary election and $2,000 opposing that Senate candidate’s opponent in the same election. The committee aggregates these IEs together since the expenditures were made for the same election and race in the same calendar year. Since the IEs only aggregate to $3,000, the committee is not required to file a 48-hour report, but will report the IEs on its next report.
A committee makes $6,000 in IEs supporting a Senate candidate in the primary election and $4,000 opposing that Senate candidate’s opponent in the same election. The committee aggregates these IEs together since the expenditures were made for the same election and the same race in the same calendar year. Since the aggregate is $10,000, the committee files a 48-hour report for these expenditures and discloses this activity on its next report.
A committee makes $5,000 in IEs supporting a Senate candidate and $5,000 supporting a House candidate. The committee is not required to file 48-hour reports because the these IEs don't aggregate together since the IEs are for two different races. The IEs for each race, on their own, are under the 48-hour reporting threshold. The committee must, however, disclose this activity on its next report.
A committee makes $5,000 in IEs for a candidate in the primary election and $5,000 in IEs for the same candidate in the general election. The committee is not required to file 48-hour reports because the expenditures were made for two different elections. The IEs for each race, on their own, are under the 48-hour reporting threshold. The committee must, however, disclose this activity on its next report.