Refunds made by the party committee

When a party committee receives a contribution that the committee deposits but sends back to the donor, the committee will report the disbursement of the refund.

Reporting on Form 3X

Party committees report the disbursement of a refund on Form 3X. The line number will depend on the entity to which the contribution is being refunded:

• Refunds to individuals will appear on Line 28(a),
• Refunds to political party committees will appear on Line 28(b), and
• Refunds to other political committees will appear on Line 28(c).

The party committee must itemize the refund on Schedule B if the committee previously itemized the incoming contribution on Schedule A at the time it was received. On Schedule B, the committee itemizes:

• Name of the contributor
• Date of the refund
• Amount of the refund

Note: the committee may provide the date of the original contribution that is being refunded in the purpose of disbursement field or memo text to help link a refunded contribution with the original contribution.

If the refund is for a contribution received in a prior year, the amount of the refund should not be included in the calculation of that individual’s aggregate year-to-date total for the current year when reporting additional contributions received from the individual on Schedule A.

Returned contributions and bounced checks

Do not use Line 28 if the original contribution was never deposited. Returned contributions or bounced checks should be reported as negative entries on the line they were originally disclosed.q

Reporting with FECFile

To enter a refund of a contribution received, go to the Summary Page tab, right click on the line number that corresponds to the entity receiving the refund and select "new":

• Line 28(a) - refunds of individual contributions
• Line 28(b) - refunds of contributions from political party committees
• Line 28(c) - refunds of contributions from other political committees