Creating an Independent Expenditure (IE) is similar to creating a typical Expense transaction, as well as using the tags in the Support/Oppose section.
- Create an Expense transaction as you normally would through either the Register or from within the entity’s record.
- Towards the bottom of the transaction, click the Specify Support/Oppose box to display more fields.
- Complete the fields and in the Tag drop down, choose either IE to Support or IE to Oppose, depending on the transaction needs.
What needs to be in place for correct reporting of Independent Expenditures?
Beyond correct entry of the IE as described above, a few conditions must be met in order for these transactions to appear correctly on your Compliance reports.
- The Supported or Opposed entity should be a Candidate or ballot measure. The Candidate’s campaign committee or the committee promoting a ballot measure should not be the supported or opposed entity.
- The Candidate information should be fully completed, including the State, Office Sought, and/or Office Held sections. Ensure a Jurisdiction is selected (Examples: State, County, City, etc.), as well as completed the Jurisdiction Description and/or District Number with the specific details.
How do Independent Expenditures aggregate?
The calculation of aggregates is very specific. They are per election, per office. This often can mean that very few Independent Expenditures will aggregate together, unless they are for the same election and pursuing the same office.
A set of examples:
IEs for Joe Smith in AL 6 for the Primary election do not aggregate with IEs for Joe Smith in AL 6 for the General.
In addition, IEs for Joe Smith in AL 6 for the Primary and IEs for Bob Jones in the MO 6 for the Primary don’t aggregate together.
However, an IE for Jane Medina in TX 5 for the Primary WILL aggregate with an IE for Martin Thompson also in TX 5 for the Primary.
FEC Reporting of Independent Expenditures
The FEC has very specific guidelines as to how these are reported for when transactions occur in different report periods. If you pay for an Independent Expenditure in one period, but the Support/Oppose Memo is dated for a report period in the future, we first report the expense on Line 21b. Then, when the Independent Expenditure happens, we have to shift the expense from Line 21B to Line 24 on Schedule E. This is done by creating a negative expense on Line 21B and a positive expense on Line 24 of Schedule E.
California Reporting of Independent Expenditures
As for the CA 460, there are specific data entry steps necessary in order to display specific results on the compliance report.
- If you want the compliance report to check the Independent Expenditure and Support boxes, use the IE to Support tag.
- If you want the compliance report to check the Independent Expenditure and Oppose boxes, use the IE to Oppose tag.