Establishing the Account The account may be established at any financial institution (i.e., bank, credit union) located in California. Under the Act’s one bank account rule discussed in Chapter 1, a candidate or officeholder may only have one controlled committee with one bank account per election. Candidates running for one office while holding another must establish a separate campaign bank account for each office, but may not have more than one bank account per office per election. All campaign contributions must be deposited into the campaign bank account and all campaign expenditures must be made from the campaign bank account. Candidates must deposit personal funds to be used for the campaign in the campaign bank account before making campaign expenditures. Exceptions: • Candidates may use their personal funds to pay a filing fee, a ballot statement fee, or the $50 Secretary of State fee, without first depositing the funds into the campaign account. • An officeholder may use personal funds to pay officeholder expenses. • A candidate may contract with a vendor or collecting agent to collect contributions prior to promptly transferring the funds to the candidate’s campaign bank account without violating the requirement that the candidate have no more than one bank account. Fees deducted by the vendor are considered expenditures from the campaign bank account at the time they are deducted.
QUICK TIP: The Political Reform Act does not require a federal tax ID number. However, most banks will require one in order to open a campaign bank account. A tax ID number may be obtained on the IRS website, www.irs.gov.
Fair Political Practices Commission advice@fppc.ca.gov
Chapter 3.6
Campaign Manual 2 August 2023 Page 169
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