All federally registered PACs and Super PACs are required to file a year-end report of receipts and expenditures no later than Sunday, January 31, 2016. The period covered by the reports is January 1 through December 31, 2015.

Under the FEC’s mandatory electronic filing rules, any committee that receives contributions or makes expenditures in excess of $50,000 in a calendar year, or expects to do so, must submit all campaign finance reports electronically. Committees that do not meet the $50,000 threshold are permitted to file paper reports but the FEC strongly recommends the voluntary use of the electronic filing system. Once a committee begins to file reports electronically, on a voluntary basis, it must continue to do so for the remainder of the calendar year unless the FEC determines that extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances make electronic filing impractical.

Reports filed electronically must be received and validated by the FEC by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the filing deadline. Paper filers must ensure that the FEC receives their report by the close of business on the date of the filing deadline. The filing deadline is not extended because the due date falls on a weekend. Additional information about federal filing requirements can be found at: http://www.fec.gov/info/filing.shtml.

All Minnesota political committees, political funds, independent expenditure committees and independent expenditure funds are required to file a year-end report of receipts and expenditures no later than Monday, February 1, 2016.

State reports must be filed electronically. The Board will consider exceptions to the electronic filing requirements if you can show that your committee or fund has a good reason for not filing electronically. If granted, a waiver of the electronic filing requirements is valid for two (2) years.   A committee or fund that fails to file the annual report by the due date is subject to a late filing fee of $25 per day, not to exceed $1,000. Additional information about state reporting requirements can be found at: http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/index.html.

January 31, 2016