Recording receipts

Forwarding contributions

Every person who receives contributions for a campaign must forward them to the treasurer of the candidate’s authorized committee within 10 days of receipt. The date of receipt is the date the person acting as a conduit obtains possession of a contribution.

Forwarding records

A person receiving contributions for a campaign must also forward the recordkeeping information along with the contributions.

No commingling

Campaign receipts must not be commingled with personal funds of any individual, such as by depositing contributions in a personal account.

Contributions of $50 or less

In advisory opinions, the Commission has recommended two possible accounting methods that satisfy recordkeeping requirements for contributions of $50 or less:

• Keep the same information required for identifying contributions that exceed $50 (amount, date of receipt and contributor’s name and mailing address); or
• In the case of small contributions collected at a fundraiser (such as gate receipts and cash contributions), keep records of the name of the event, the date and the total amount of contributions received on each day of the event.

Contributions exceeding $50

Records must identify each contribution of more than $50 by:

• Amount;
• Date of receipt; and
• Contributor’s name and mailing address.

Furthermore, political committees must maintain either a full-size photocopy or digital image of each check or written instrument by which a contribution of more than $50 is made.

Contributions aggregating over $200

For each contribution that exceeds $200, either by itself or when added to the contributor’s previous contributions made during the same calendar year, records must identify that contribution by:

• Amount;
• Date of receipt; and
• Contributor’s full name and mailing address, occupation and employer.

If a person has already contributed an aggregate amount of over $200 during a calendar year, each subsequent contribution, regardless of amount, must be identified in the same way.

Please note that contributions to authorized committees are aggregated on a calendar-year basis for recordkeeping purposes, but are aggregated on a per-election basis for purposes of monitoring contribution limits, and on an election-cycle basis for reporting purposes.

Distinguishing between primary and general contributions

If, before the primary election, a campaign receives contributions designated for the general election, it must use an acceptable accounting method to distinguish between primary contributions and general election contributions.

Acceptable accounting methods include:

• Maintaining separate accounts for each election; or
• Maintaining separate books and records for each election.

The committee’s records must demonstrate that, prior to the primary election, recorded cash on hand was at all times greater than or equal to the sum of general election contributions received minus the sum of general election disbursements made.

If the candidate does not advance to the general election, all general election contributions received by the committee must be refunded, redesignated or reattributed.

Contributions from political committees

Records must identify each contribution from a political committee, regardless of amount, by:

• Amount,
• Date of receipt, and
• Name and address of the political committee.

Lobbyist bundled contributions

Candidate committees must maintain records of any bundled contributions forwarded by or received and credited to a lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC that aggregate in excess of the reporting threshold for any covered period for three years after filing.

Another type of bundled contribution covers contributions received by the candidate committee from a contributor, but credited to the lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC through records, designations or other means of recognizing that a certain amount of money has been raised by the lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC. In this case, the contribution must be 1) received by the candidate committee and 2) credited to a lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC to satisfy the definition of bundled contribution.

Crediting recognizes that a certain amount of money has been raised by the lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC. Examples of crediting include:

• Maintaining records or using any method to retain written evidence pertaining to the committee’s crediting. Records include paper, electronic, digital, audio, and video records, and records in any other format, including informal items such as hand-written notations on a business card.
• Providing designations and other benefits to the lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC, including giving honorary titles, tracking identifiers, access or invitations to events for people who raised a certain amount of money, mementos such as photographs with the candidate and autographed copies of books authored by the candidate.

Joint fundraiser contributions

With regard to gross proceeds, the joint fundraising representative must collect the following contributor information and later forward it to the participating political committees:

• For contributions exceeding $50, the amount, date of receipt and the contributor's name and address.
• For contributions exceeding $200, the amount, date of receipt and the contributor's name, address, occupation and employer.

Designated, redesignated and reattributed contributions

A committee must retain the written copies of contributors’ designations, redesignations and reattributions.

Also, for any contributions presumptively redesignated or reattributed, the committee must retain any writings from contributors that accompany the contribution and any notices sent from the committee to the contributor.

Records of redesignations obtained electronically may be retained in a database in a manner consistent with the recordkeeping requirements for signed written redesignations under 11 CFR 110.1.

When a committee has reason to question the legality of a contribution, it has specific time frames in which to clarify whether the contribution is permissible. While investigating a contribution, the committee must keep a written record noting the basis of concern for each deposited contribution which:

• Requires a written redesignation and/or reattribution from the contributor; or
• Requires confirmation that it is not from a prohibited source.

Joint fundraiser contributions: The joint fundraising representative must also keep a record of the total amount of prohibited contributions received, if any, and of any transfers containing prohibited funds made to participants that may accept them.