Overdrafts

If a bank honors a check written by a committee with insufficient funds in its account, no contribution from the bank results as long as the overdraft:

• Is made on an account subject to automatic overdraft protection;
• Is subject to the usual and customary interest rate; and
• Is subject to a repayment schedule.

An overdraft that does not meet these conditions is a prohibited contribution.

Overdraft protection secured through a line of credit is subject to the rules on bank loans.

Bounced checks

If a committee reports the receipt of a check and later finds it cannot be negotiated because of insufficient funds in the donor’s account, the committee deducts the amount from its next report as follows:

• If the receipt was not itemized in a previous report, deduct the amount of the check from the total for unitemized contributions (Line 11a(ii)) on the Detailed Summary Page).
• If the receipt was itemized previously, itemize the return of the check as a negative for the appropriate line number.

Checks received and returned by the bank in the same reporting period do not need to be reported.