How Do I Enter in Inkind Contributions for Independent Expenditures?

Applies To: Federal Election Commission – Political Action Committees (PACs)

On rare occasions, a PAC may get an inkind contribution in the form of Independent Expenditure. For example, a related organization supplied staff to make calls to potential voters. The calls were considered an Independent Expenditure (IE), and the donated staff time is considered an inkind contribution.

However, there are a few factors to consider:

On the FEC Report, inkind contributions are typically reported as cash-impact on both Schedule A and Schedule B. This insures no overall impact to the committee’s cash on hand
In this instance, the IE needs to be reported as a memo, as the filer did not spend any money. That means the corresponding inkind contribution must also be reported as a memo so that cash on hand is correct

To ensure proper reporting, there is some specific data entry:

Create the inkind contribution from the related organization, ensuring to add tag: For Independent Expenditure
Create an Non-Monetary Expense to the same related organization. At the top of the expense, be sure to check the IsMemo box
On the Non-Monetary Expense, add Support/Oppose Memos to the Candidates or Ballot Measures that the IE was made for. Ensure the S/O Memos have either tag: IE to Support or IE to Oppose

Doing this will ensure:

The inkind contribution pulls to Schedule A as a Memo
The inkind contribution WILL NOT pull to Schedule B
The IE is properly reported on Schedule E with no cash impact

Please remember, this scenario is quite rare; you should only enter transactions in this way if your related organization, legal counsel or FEC analyst instructed you to do so.