Loan principal and interest payments
All loans received by a committee must be itemized and continuously reported until the loan is repaid. When a committee is paying off a loan, principal payments and interested are reported separately.
Reporting on candidate forms
House and Senate committees report loan principal payments on Form 3, Schedule B for Line 19(a) or 19(b), as well as on Schedule C for Line 13(a) or 13(b). Interest payments are reported on Schedule B for Line 17.
Principal payments
Payments to reduce loan principal must be itemized, regardless of amount, on a Schedule B for the appropriate category of loan repayment. Line 19(a) itemizes repayments for loans made or guaranteed by the candidate. Line 19(b) itemizes repayments for all other loans.
Schedule B shows a $5,000 payment on a loan from the candidate, Martha Washington. The committee disclosed the payment on Schedule B supporting Line 19(a) and added a clear purpose of “loan repayment.”
In addition, payments to reduce principal must be reported on Schedule C for Line 13(a) each reporting period until the loan is repaid.
Schedule C shows the original loan balance of $20,000, the $5,000 payment, and an outstanding balance at the end of the reporting period of $15,000.
Interest payments
Interest paid on a loan is reported as an operating expenditure on Line 17. Interest payments will be itemized on Schedule B for Line 17 once payments to the payee aggregate over $200 in an election cycle.
Schedule B shows a $150 interest payment for the loan from the candidate. Since the committee pays interest regularly, this interest payment will be itemized on Schedule B for Line 17 because the committee’s disbursements to this payee exceed $200 for the election cycle.
If the committee is not paying interest as it is incurred, outstanding interest will be reported as a debt on Schedule D until it is repaid (see debt reporting examples).
Reporting with FECFile
To report loan principal payments, go to the Loan/Debts tab, right click on the loan being repaid, click “Loan/Debt payments…”, and click “Add New…” This will add the loan payment as a disbursement on Schedule B and will reduce the amount owed on Schedule C.
To report interest payments, go to the Summary Page, right click on “Line 17 Operating expenditures,” and select “add new.”
