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.
There are two versions of the 24-IE:
- Static Aggregate: On the Static Aggregate version, the itemization is on a Static Basis (total as of the end of the report) instead of Running Basis (total as of the time of the transaction). This version is different than the Running Aggregate version in that if the aggregate total of IEs for the same office and election is above the threshold, only the transactions that are above the threshold itemize. With the static aggregate, all transactions that make up the $1,000 itemization threshold amount as of the end of the report will itemize, including those below the threshold amount.
- Running Aggregate: On the Running Aggregate version, the itemization is on a Running Basis (as of the date of each transaction) rather than a Static Basis (as of the end of the period). This version is different than the Static Aggregate version in that if the aggregate total of IEs for the same office and election is above the threshold, all transactions itemize for the same office and election, including those below the threshold amount). With the Running Aggregate, only the transactions that meet or exceed the $1,000 itemization threshold amount will itemize.
For either version, 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.