About the FEC Form 24-IE Report

The FEC 24-IE Report is used to report Independent Expenditures in aggregate of more than $1,000 within the 20 days before an election. Independent Expenditures made by the committee and the estimated expenses will pull to this report.

The FEC 24-IE is only filed by political committees. For Non-Committee filers, use the Form 5.

Please note this report, as well as the FEC Form 48-IE and Schedule E on the FEC Form 3x, only disclose IEs made about Federal candidates or committees.

The aggregation calculation is a little different for IEs than other transactions. IEs aggregate on the office and election, rather than the individual candidate. Determining when contributions should pull to a FEC Form 24-IE can be confusing. Here are a few examples to help demonstrate situations that are most common.

Example 1: Your committee pays for two IEs for Sarah Smith for Congress. One is for $700 for the Primary and one is for $500 for the General. Even though this is for the same office and the grand total is over $1,000, neither of these would itemize as the per-election totals do not cross the $1,000 amount ($700 for Primary and $500 for General)

Example 2: Your committee made an IE to Support Jesus Gonzalez for Senate in the amount of $650 for the Primary. You also made an IE to Oppose his opponent in the amount of $500, also for the Primary. Despite these being for different candidates, these would itemize, as the total amount for office and election is more than $1,000.

Example 3: Your filer made an IE in the amount of $750 for Minh Nguyen for Congress (AZ-4) for the Primary. You also made an IE in the same amount for Anya Patel for Congress (TX-2) for the Primary. These would not itemize because even though they are for the same election, for a congressional race, and the grand total is over $1,000, they are for a different congressional districts.

Furthermore, if you are expecting a IE to pull to a FEC Form 24-IE and it is not, verify the following data entry:

• The Form 24-IE only reports IEs. Check to make sure there is a Support/Oppose Memo on the expense transaction you’re expecting to report. Also ensure there is either an IE to Support or IE to Oppose tag on the Support/Oppose Memo.
• The Form 24-IE only reports Federal IEs and, as stated above, matches on office and election. Ensure the Candidate Info is fully filled out: State, Office Sought, District Number, and Jurisdiction is Federal. Double check the election on the Support/Oppose Memos as well.

The FEC Form 24-IE resets after each report is filed. This means the aggregation total for itemization goes back to $0, and you don’t have to file another report until an additional $1,000 is spent on the office and election. Ensure after you file a report, you mark the report as filed so the aggregate properly resets.

If you need to file a report due to an Independent Expenditure in aggregate of more than $10,000 outside of the 20 days before an election, please use the FEC Form 48-IE Report.

There can be situations where the 48-IE and 24-IE reports overlap. Since the same information is reported on both, most use the 24-IE instead of the 48-IE during the 20 days before an election. Please confirm with your FEC analyst if you are not sure which report to use.