How to Report Campaign Finance as a

Central CommitteeBrought to you by:

Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board

What do we have to report?

All money coming in and going out.

All this information you should already have – simply mirror your bank accounts or other record keeping systems.

All In-Kind items or services, they are reported just like contributions but in the In-Kind report section.

When to Report Election Year Reporting Dates

• May 19th (report covers 01/01 through 05/14)

• July 19th(report covers 05/15 through 07/14)

• October 19th (report covers 07/15 through 10/14)

• January 19th (report covers 10/15 through 12/31)

Non-Election Year Reporting Dates• January 19th (report covers 01/01 through 12/31)

Add contributions and expenditures however you feel comfortable, daily, weekly, monthly… Just please don’t file your report until you have all your entries entered.

Permitted Contributions

• Central Committee’s may accept any amount of money from any individual, candidate, PAC or organization other than corporations, financial institutions, and insurance companies . LLCs and LLPs are fine, but INCs are not.

• A helpful reminder for an organization is if they do contribute to a central committee they are subject to reporting responsibilities if the organization exceeds $750.00 per calendar year in contributions • Must submit either a one-time contribution

form or register as a PAC

Permitted Contributions -

Continued Any contribution of $25 and under can be anonymous and listed as un-itemized and any contribution over $25, but less than $50.01 can also be reported as un-itemized.

The difference is that the central committee needs to have logs of each contributor’s full name and full address in their records if the contribution is over $25. The only stipulation to this rule is that the central committee needs to list every contribution in the $25.01 to $50.00 range or list them all as un-itemized; no cherry picking please.

Permitted Contributions -

Continued Any contribution over $50.00 must be reported

with the contributors full name and address.

Contributions need to be handed to the Treasurer within 15 days and the Treasurer has 7 days to deposit said contributions.

Prohibited Contributions

Central Committee’s may not accept money from insurance companies, banks, credit unions or corporations.

Central Committee’s cannot accept money from a candidate if it is for another candidate. In other words, cannot use the central committee as a conduit.

Central Committee’s may not accept anonymous contributions over $25. If this money is received, it must be escheated to the state.

Pass the Hat/Fishbowl Contributions

• Committees must keep an internal record of the name and address of all individuals contributing in excess of $25.00• Again, any contribution in excess of $25.00

that can not be identified must be escheated to the State of Iowa• Good practice is to place a sign and/or

assign a person to oversee the contributions• Miscellaneous/Un-itemized contributions

should contain explanation of “Contributions less than $25.00”

Permitted expenditures

All expenditures are permitted, as long as your committees chair approves and as long as they are not earmarked from candidate to candidate.

All expenses should be done by check or bank card

Have receipts and check numbers handy

Expenditures should be reported as they happen and/or the date of the check

Permitted Fund-Raising Activites

Raffles & 50/50’s Garage Sales Auctions

• These are the times to select “Fund-Raiser” on the reports.

• A gambling license is required on raffles and can be obtained thru the Department of Inspections and Appeals with a letter from us.

• All items donated for auctions or garage sales to the central committee must be reported as in-kind and the same rules as contributions apply.

Tips on Best Practices – Treasurer

Carefully select a treasurer who has the time, interest and ability

Treasurer must know or learn Iowa’s campaign finance laws

Treasurer must be able to use the Ethics Board’s electronic filing system

Treasurer must be responsive to email reminders and inquiries from the Ethics Board

Treasurer must have good attention to detail and be a good record keeper

Treasurer - continued Treasurer must make copies of all checks before

depositing Treasurer musk keep a contributor log with date,

amount, full name, and full address of every contributor in excess of $25

Treasurer must keep receipts and invoices Treasurer must keep bank statements and copies

of deposit slips

Tips on Best Practices – Chair

Chair is ultimately responsible for committee and must oversee treasurer

Chair must know or learn campaign finance laws Chair should have access to bank account and

records and periodically review them Chair should review reports and make sure they

accurately reflect all the committee’s campaign activates

Chair should ensure his or her reports are filed on time

Chair - continued Chair must provide treasurer with all of the

pertinent information and documentation for contributions and expenditures

Chair must promptly provide treasurer with contributions for deposit

Chair and Treasurer should be able to work together

Best Practices in Reporting

These tips will not only save you time, but make our job that much easier. Most of these will be discussed in our WRS PowerPoint, but are important enough to list them twice.

When selecting contributions or expenditures from or to any committee; please select “COMMITTEE” as the contributor or expense type. This will provide you with options to select the exact committee as you type is their name and it will also auto-populate their address too.

When accepting a check from a joint checking account, please report the person who wrote the check unless you are sure its from both parties. Sometimes one of the joint checking account holders wishes not to have ties to your central committee.

Best Practices in Reporting -Continued

A person shall not make a contribution or expenditure in the name of another person, and a person shall not knowingly accept a contribution or expenditure made by one person in the name of another.

Attributions Statements

Published material that expressly advocates for or against a clearly identified candidate or ballot issue shall contain a statement identifying the person paying for the published material. This statement is referred to as the “attribution statement.”

The term “published material” means any newspaper, magazine, shopper, outdoor advertising facility, poster, direct mailing, brochure, Internet Web site, television, video, or motion picture advertising, campaign sign larger than 32 square feet, or any other form of printed political advertising.

Exempt Itemso Editorials or news articles of a media organization that are not political

advertisementso Articles of clothingo Radio advertisements, live telephone calls, or auto-generated telephone

messages.o Items smaller than 2 inches by 4 incheso Television, video, and motion picture advertising. The attribution statement

shall be displayed on the advertisement in a clearly readable manner for at least four seconds.

Sign Placement• Permitted Locations

• Residential property.• Agricultural land belonging to a family farm operation as defined

in Iowa Code section 9H.1.• Property leased for residential purposes including, but not limited

to, apartments, condominiums, college housing facilities, and houses.  However, signs may only be placed on the portion of the leased property space that is actually occupied.

• Vacant lots owned by a person who is not a prohibited contributor.• Property belonging to any business, association, or organization

that is not a corporation, financial institution, or insurance company. 

• Property leased by a candidate, campaign committee, or PAC to be used as campaign headquarters or office and the placement of the sign is limited to the space that is actually leased. 

• Property owned by the state, county, city, or other political subdivision if the property is made open and available to any person from the public to lawfully place any type of sign.

Sign Placement• Prohibited Locations

• On any property without the permission of the property owner or lessee.

• Property owned by the state or the governing body of a county, city, or other political subdivision of the state including all property considered the public right-of-way unless the property is made open and available to any individual or group from the public to lawfully place any type of sign.

• Property owned, leased, or occupied by a corporation, financial institution, or insurance company except when leased as campaign headquarters or a campaign office and the placement of the sign is limited to the space that is actually leased.

Sign Placement• Except on private property, campaign signs

for candidates or ballot issues shall not be placed on the following on Election Day:• The premises of any polling place or within 300 feet of an

outside door affording access to any room where the polls are held or to any hallway, corridor, stairway, or other means of reaching the room where the polls are held.

• On any motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, or any attachment to the preceding, if the vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer is parked on public property within 300 feet of an outside door affording access to a polling place and the sign is more than 90 square inches in size.

We are here to help! Don’t hesitate to contact the Board’s staff if you

have a question or need help www.iowa.gov/ethics (515) 281 – 3489 www.facebook.com/IowaEthicsBoard www.twitter.com/IAEthicsBoard