Understanding Traditional Loans v. Credit Card Debt for Campaign Reporting Purposes

ElectaFile Short Summary: It’s 8 Days to the Year End Semi Annual Report. For those who have a filing obligation, don’t miss the deadline. Reporting loans and credit card purchases are treated differently by the State Board. We’ll explain.

When you think of “campaign debt,” you might use that term synonymously for loans to the campaign such as a check written by the candidate to capitalize the campaign and for credit card debt incurred on a campaign committee credit card.

“Campaign debt,” can mean two different things and each is reported slightly differently to the board of elections.

The vast majority of NC political committees are more likely to need to report loan proceeds, i.e., a situation where the candidate writes her committee a check for $5,000.00, to get the committee going. Recall that filing fees are funded by committees early in their lives. We’ve written about these loans before here.

Less common are instances where a political committee has taken the extra step to obtain a credit card in the name of the committee. We’ve written about those before here.

In the case of loans, you initially “tell” the State Board about a loan by reporting the proceeds of the loan as a receipt. For example, you’d report a $5,000 receipt in the form of a loan proceed from John R. Candidate. That loan would remain on your reporting books until you reported final payment. In between cutting the loan and paying it off, any payments on the loan would be reported as expenditures. Even if the loan is to be paid off over a number of years, its reported as a receipt on the date you receive the funds.

In the case of credit cards, you have more data points to enter in “telling” the State Board about the original charge and any credit card payments you make. First, at the time of the original charge, you must report both the credit card company and the underlying place of purchase. We’ve been searching for the correct word for the “place of purchase,” but we haven’t found anything not clunky. Thus, we’ll teach this point via example:

“Makin’ Copies” Example: You use a Chase Credit Card in the name of the Clarke County Libertarian Executive Committee to buy $100's worth of copy paper at Staples. You’ll need to report all of i) Chase; ii) $100; iii) Staples; iv) Office Supplies; and v) Date. This tells the State Board what, when, and how you’re spending your committee’s funds. Later, when you make a payment on the credit card, you’ll need to report the i) amount; ii) recipient, e.g., Chase Bank; iii) date of the payment; iv) and the fact that you’re paying a monthly credit card expense.

ElectaFile has easy interfaces to report both credit cards & loans. These track the State Board’s forms. We’ve worked hard to simplify these steps and we’re proud of our work—take a look!

Here’s the loan proceeds page:

Here’s the credit card debt page:

Regardless of how you choose to file, keep the loans and the credit cards square!

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What is ElectaFile.com? ElectaFile offers easy and affordable electronic "click to file" services with the NC State Board and County Boards. ElectaFile is web-based and accessible from Macs and PCs with an internet connection. You only pay a small fee if you file using ElectaFile. If you need a free consultation on your situation, please let us know. If ElectaFile can help, it will. We are not your treasurer or your lawyer. If you need a professional treasurer or an attorney, ElectaFile regularly refers folks to professionals on all sides of the aisle.