Political contributions from partnerships

Reprinted from the Spring 2014 Compliance Connections Newsletter
Download the complete Spring 2014 issue

Whenever a partnership makes a contribution to a candidate’s authorized campaign committee, the contribution is attributed proportionately to each participating partner and counts against the individual contribution limit of those participating partners.

The partnership may designate how the contribution should be allocated among the partners and can be shared equally among participating partners or partners may be attributed greater or smaller portions of the contribution. A contribution made with partnership funds also counts toward the partnership’s contribution limit of $2,600 per election to any candidate’s authorized committee.

If an individual partner makes a contribution from their own funds rather than from partnership funds, that contribution does not count against the partnership’s contribution limit. Prohibited contributions include those from professional corporations or from partnerships using funds from corporate, foreign national or federal contractor members.