Whatever You Do, Don't Say "Retired..."

Chasing Down Retirees for Job History….

Quick Summary: donor info is required; as for a donor’s “principal occupation,” two key reporting points: the donor’s “job title or profession” and “employer’s name or employer’s specific field of business activity.” This is difficult when donors are retired. But there’s a pathway…

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NC law requires that a campaign donor’s principal occupation be disclosed when reporting a contribution of over $50. We preach getting info from a donor even if the contribution is less than $50. That way there’s no mystery.

For now, though, campaign audit memos are littered with reminders from the State Board about how listing “retirement” as a job or employer is not acceptable because it does not say enough.

Here’s what the State Board Manual Pages 53-54 recommends:

For an employed contributor, disclose job title or profession and the employer’s name or employer’s specific field of business activity. If you’re not familiar with appropriate business fields, the State Board links to something called the NAICS classification for specific business fields. That updated link is here. FAIR WARNING: The business fields database is a rabbit hole.

These data points show as boxes 3b and 3c on Form 1210 linked here. On ElectaFile you just type.

Let’s focus today on retirees.

In the event of the retiree who used to be a lawyer—you’d list the profession as “Lawyer” and the employer’s name as “Not Employed”. If the donor identifies as having no job past, present, or future, the State Board says you can list him or her as “No Job Title or Profession” and “Not Employed”.

Now, we know this issue keeps coming up because the State Board recently included the reminder in multiple audit memos that our team reviewed.

Here’s what they say: “A committee may not list a contributor as retired. Please see the Campaign Finance Manual for more information on how to report a contributor’s principal occupation.”

OK. That’s the update for today. Don’t write “retired” on your report. Tune in next time for what constitutes “best efforts” in tracking down information on donor job data.

Thanks! The Team at ElectaFile

PS If you have topics you want to hear about, drop us a line. We’ll get on it.

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