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Australian Electoral Commission
The AEC is committed to providing timely, accurate information about the new legislation. This website will be updated regularly to offer clear, considered guidance relevant to all affected members of the regulated community.
Under the Electoral Act as amended, only political parties can have an associated entity. An independent MP cannot have an associated entity.
More information:
Associated entities
Who should lodge an annual return?
Annual returns must be lodged by:
What is the disclosure threshold?
When are annual returns due?
More information:
Annual returns
The election period begins on the date that the writs are issued.
A person becomes a candidate on the earlier of the following:
For reporting purposes, it is possible that a person may be required to provide an annual return as both a candidate and as an MP or Senator for the same year if they hold the status of both in a calendar year.
More information:
Annual returns
The items that can be claimed are broadly the same. Information about the definition of electoral expenditure is here: Fact sheet: Electoral expenditure.
The reforms also introduce the new concept of Administrative Assistance Funding.
More information:
Electoral expenditure
Electoral expenditure caps apply from 1 January to 31 December each year.
The Independent House of Representatives, or Divisional cap, is $800,000 per calendar year.
The $800,000 cap is a cap on expenditure. Separate caps apply to gifts made for a federal purpose and these amounts must be credited to a federal account and can only be used for federal electoral expenditure.
The Act does not impose limits on amounts that candidates can raise in a calendar year for purposes other than a federal purpose. However, these gifts cannot be credited to a federal account.
More information:
Electoral expenditure
Indexation is based on the dates and formulas provided in the Electoral Act. There are a number of amounts that are indexed on 1 January. The AEC will publish indexed amounts in accordance with the Electoral Act on the AEC website.
Electoral-Act-administration
The AEC is unable to advise regulated entities on how they structure their internal finances. The AEC provides general information to help participants understand electoral funding and disclosure requirements. This information should not be relied upon as legal or financial advice. Individuals and organisations should obtain their own independent advice to understand how the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 applies to their specific circumstances.
Electoral-Act-administration
Key terms used in the Electoral Act, such as gift or donations and administrative expenditure, have specific meaning for the purpose of administering the scheme. These definitions, as well as the requirements relating to time, differ from tax law.
Electoral-Act-administration
Yes. Acceptable recipient action is required by the recipient when the donation cap is exceeded.
If a donation had been disclosed but is returned for any reason, where the cap is not exceeded, an amendment to the disclosure notice is more appropriate.
Gifts and gift caps
Yes. For a significant third party, the financial controller has the obligation to lodge the donation disclosure notice and an annual return.
Every significant third party, associated entity and nominated entity must nominate a financial controller. If the significant third party or associated entity is a person (as opposed to a business or other entity), they may nominate themselves as the financial controller.
If the significant third party or associated entity is not a person, an individual acting on its behalf must nominate the financial controller.
The AEC is considering if there is a possibility to provide for preliminary work to be undertaken by another representative prior to it being lodged by the financial controller. This will involve detailed consideration of role-based access through the IT system. The AEC will need to consider whether it is available from implementation or if it is a feature of future updates. However, any such system feature (if allowed) would not alter the financial controller’s disclosure obligations and liability under the Electoral Act.
Disclosure
The timeframe is based on calendar days.
Disclosure
The role of the AEC is to implement the legislation as passed by Parliament. Where the legislation requires a donation disclosure notice to be provided to the AEC, and even if the last day for doing so falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the notice must be lodged within the timeframes required by the applicable period (non-election period, election period or expedited notice period).
Disclosure
The AEC wants to make the process of making a donation disclosure notice as simple as possible. There is complexity in establishing a system that operates in that way, especially in relation to Commonwealth privacy laws. On initial implementation on 1 July 2026, the system may not necessarily do matching in the way that we intend it to in the future. It may be a system development in a later release.
Disclosure
The legislation does not provide for low value donations (provided for a federal purpose) to be excluded from the cumulative total for disclosures.
Disclosure
The legislative amendments intend to enhance the transparency and integrity of Australia’s electoral processes. The amendments streamline and modernise the AEC’s compliance and enforcement powers in relation to Part XX of the Electoral Act. This is to support the effective operation of the Part XX amendments, such as those related to the expedited disclosure periods. The legislation also provides for civil penalty provisions (rather than fines) where a person may be non-compliant.
Further guidance will be provided to entities ahead of commencement.
Disclosure
Bequeathments or amounts bequeathed to an entity through a will are not gifts. Therefore, there is no requirement to complete a donation disclosure notice in relation to the amount bequeathed.
Disclosure
Once the threshold has been exceeded, each donation, regardless of the amount, must be disclosed in line with the notice periods for the relevant election period in which the gift is made or received. Disclosure notices can be lodged individually or as part of a 'bulk upload'.
The AEC is still determining how the information will be presented on the Transparency Register.
Donors
This is an important part of the AEC’s system design, known as ‘identity and access management’. We will set up the new system to manage expedited disclosure and new returns obligations and acknowledge the importance this is not a single point of failure.
System
We are currently developing a CSV template and would be happy to share the draft with this group in future sessions.
System
The Minister can issue transitional rules that will set out how the disclosure scheme moves from current system to future system. Those rules have not yet been finalised. It is possible those transitional rules may set the first six months as operating as though it were a calendar year or in another way. The AEC will provide information regarding any transitional rules once the rules are issued.
Transition
The new legislation operates on a calendar year basis from 1 July 2026. This is a change from the financial year operation of the current scheme.
The AEC's role is to implement the legislation as enacted by Parliament. Should you wish to make a submission to JSCEM directly on these matters, this can be done at Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters – Parliament of Australia.
Legislation
The Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 2025 provides a
detailed definition of a federal account:
Federal account means an account
where:
A federal account of a federal party may be established by the federal party or a state branch of the federal party.
The AEC will publish guidance explaining this in more user-friendly language.
The new legislation requires all electoral expenditure incurred by the various entities covered by the reform to be paid from a federal account.
If your entity has disclosure obligations you will need to consider the process you have for receiving donations so as to ensure that gifts you receive for a federal purpose will be credited to a federal account. Amounts that are not for a federal purpose must not be credited to a federal account. If this happens you have 6 weeks from the date you become aware to withdraw them.
Note: Federal purpose is the purpose of incurring electoral expenditure or creating or communicating electoral matter.
Federal accounts
The new scheme no longer uses the term “campaign” and “campaign account.”
The Electoral Act refers to “federal purposes” and “elections.” Gifts for a federal purpose must go into a federal account and be recorded accordingly. You can carry funds across from one calendar year to the next, but money spent must also be recorded. The new legislation/future scheme is based on definitions. Rather than talking about a campaign, the legislation is interested in whether you have received gifts for a federal purpose. If it is a monetary gift, has it been made to a federal account?
If your entity has disclosure obligations, you need to consider your process for receiving those donations. This is essential to ensure gifts you receive for a federal purpose will be credited to a federal account.
Federal accounts
We are currently reviewing how donations and accounts work in practice. Further guidance will be provided to entities ahead of commencement on the FAD Reform webpage.
Federal accounts
Funds held in a federal administrative account (that is not a federal account) must only be used for a federal administrative purpose or pay for administrative expenditure. This means that funds held in a federal administrative account can only be transferred to another federal administrative account [s287]. Administrative expenditure is not electoral expenditure or funds used/intended to be used for a federal purpose.
Federal accounts
We are currently reviewing how donations and accounts work in practice. Further guidance will be provided to entities ahead of commencement on the FAD Reform webpage.
Federal accounts
Only amounts required or permitted by the Electoral Act can be credited to a federal account. This includes, for example, funds from another federal account, gifts for a federal purpose or, interest on the money held in the account.
Funds held in a federal administrative account (that is not a federal account) must only be used for a federal administrative purpose or pay for administrative expenditure. This means that funds Add new Q&A held in a federal administrative account can only be transferred to another federal administrative account [s287]. Administrative expenditure is not electoral expenditure or funds used/intended to be used for a federal purpose.
We are currently reviewing accounts work in practice. Further guidance will be provided to entities ahead of commencement on the FAD Reform webpage.
Federal accounts
The AEC would consider this as best practice. The recipient of donations would need to advise the donor which account the donation should be deposited to.
Federal accounts
The party or recipients.
Federal accounts
All electoral expenditure must be paid from a federal account, which:
For any payments in relation to employee benefits (such as salary, superannuation, leave entitlements, etc.) compliance would be met by:
Transferring the portion attributable from the federal account (even if pooled temporarily) meets requirements, as outlined in the Explanatory Memorandum that accompanied the passage of the amending legislation.
The AEC recommends that the relevant entity:
Federal accounts
A monetary gift made for a federal purpose may be received into an account other than a federal account. It must be transferred to a federal account before it is expended for a federal purpose.
Donations received for a State and Territory purpose (relating to a State, Territory, or local government election) are not for a federal purpose and cannot be deposited into a federal account.
A guideline providing additional detail, and the AEC's expectations regarding the transfer of monetary gifts into federal accounts will be published in early March.
There are also requirements recipients of donations must comply with regarding disclosure of donations and caps on donations received for a federal purpose. These obligations arise from and timeframes to disclose are based on the date the donation is received by the recipient from the donor.
More information can be found here:
Federal accounts
Recipient entities may receive directed donations into an account and allocate for administrative or federal purposes.
This is provided that the first account is not a federal account, which must only be used for amounts for federal purposes.
Entities may keep federal administrative accounts to receive donations for administrative expenditure purposes and for administrative expenditure, such as costs for administrative staff apportioned appropriately if required.
Only donations for federal administrative purposes, that is, administrative expenditure and not electoral expenditure, can go into these accounts.
More information can be found here:
Federal accounts
The overall gift cap regulates donors (it does not apply to recipients) and caps the total value of donations a donor can make to all recipients in a calendar year. This is $1.6 million (32 times the $50,000 amount). Whether it applies separately to each branch depends on how those branches are organised within the entity structure.
Gifts and gift caps
Where a significant third party has a branch that is an associated entity, the branch is treated as being different from the significant third party. This means that if a branch of a significant third party is an associated entity, the branch is obligated to comply separately with disclosure requirements, donation, and expenditure caps. The significant third party and all branches that are not associated entities are treated as a single significant third party.
Example – operation of s287(8D) – Explanatory Memorandum [page 26].
The Busy Bee Workers Associated (BBWA), and its branches are a significant third party. The BBWA Queensland branch is also registered as an associated entity.
Due to the operation of subsection 287(8D), for the purposes of Part XX of the Electoral Act:
For example, this means that the BBWA QLD and the BBWA will have separate gift caps and expenditure cap.
More information:
Gifts and gift caps
In relation to when a gift is received, it will depend on the type of gift.
For example, a gift of money into a bank account. The date that the recipient receives the gift would be the date the funds are in the recipient’s account (i.e. the recipient has possession and control of the funds).
More information is available here:
Gifts and gift caps
Gift caps will apply from 1 July 2026. The Minister can issue transitional rules that will set out how the disclosure scheme moves from current system to future system. Those rules have not yet been finalised.
It is possible those transitional rules may set the first six months as operating as though it were a calendar year or in some other way. The AEC will provide information regarding any transitional rules once the rules are issued.
Gifts and gift caps
The same gift caps apply to all recipients per individual donor irrespective of the recipient ‘s entity type.
However, for electoral expenditure, the type and amount of the electoral expenditure caps depend on the type of entity. The Divisional expenditure cap is the same for RPPs (Jane Citizen party or independent candidates (Jane Citizen individually). The Divisional cap is $800,000 per division.
An RPP (Jane Citizen party) would also attract a federal expenditure cap ($90 million) and a Senate expenditure cap (based on the State or Territory Senate representation).
More information is available here:
Gifts and gift caps
The AEC is developing an IT system to receive donor details; both individual and bulk uploads will be possible.
Donors
Donations (gifts) that are above $5,000 must be disclosed.
Donors
If an individual makes more than one donation to an entity in a calendar year and the total amount exceeds $5,000 (the disclosure threshold), those donations will need to be disclosed to the AEC. It is likely we will accept notification of amounts below the disclosure threshold to be recorded in the system.
Donors
It is a legislative requirement that both the donor and the recipient disclose a donation. The AEC will consider ways of displaying the donations that may aid in reducing any confusion. We are looking at how we properly match donations from donors and entities within compliance and system requirements. There are strong privacy protections within the Commonwealth legislation that apply to the AEC and other Commonwealth bodies. We need to be careful about how we match donations. Our system may not be capable of doing this on 1 July 2026, but we will be looking to adapt it for future releases as we expand the IT-enabled parts of the funding and disclosure system.
Donors
Recipients must take all reasonable steps to ensure they comply with all relevant gift caps, including the annual gift cap. The Electoral Act sets out who is the responsible person for recipients of gifts for a federal purpose to ensure they comply with gift caps. The responsible person must ensure the recipient does not receive gifts for a federal purpose that exceed any relevant gift cap.
Similarly, the donor is responsible to ensure they do not give gifts that exceed any relevant gift cap.
More information:
Donors
Both advance and post-election funding will be paid. Advance election funding will be paid ahead of a general election to parliamentary parties and candidates who were entitled to election funding in the previous federal election. It will likely be paid in instalments. The process will need to be settled through new regulations under the Electoral Act. These have not been finalised.
Funding
The legislation for the forthcoming scheme does not cap administrative expenditure.
Funding
Advance election funding regulations are still being developed through the Department of Finance, so the timeframe is not yet known. Administrative election funding is paid before the end of the seventh day in the quarter (January, April, July and October).
Funding
Administrative assistance funding (AAF) can be used to fund administrative expenditure incurred by a registered political party (RPP), independent MP or Senator for their operational and management activities.
Administrative expenditure includes the following types of expenses, to the extent they are not related to electoral expenditure:
More information:
Funding
The legislation provides for payment of the Administrative Assistance Funding for each quarter commencing 1 July 2026.
The AEC must make a quarterly AAF payment to the RPP, independent MP or Senator before the end of the 7th day of the month commencing the quarter (i.e. April, July, October and January).
Specific requirements set out eligibility criteria, the timing of payments, and the accounts to which the AEC must make those payments.
Closer to commencement of the relevant provisions, the AEC will advise eligible recipients of the detailed process and confirm the timing for payment of the first quarterly instalment.
More information:
Funding
The reforms include transitional rules to guide the shift from the current to the new scheme. For the first six months, the AEC’s focus will be on education rather than enforcement. Where there are unintentional breaches, the approach is that we will educate first. However, intentional breaches will still be subject to compliance action.
Transition
The reform legislation includes some transitional rules. They will address the way in which the legislation deals with moving from a financial year to a calendar year. Those rules will be put to Parliament before the scheme kicks off on 1 July 2026.
The transitional rules also include the ability to defer the commencement of the legislation by up to 12 months.
Transition
Yes, there are a limited number of issues or rules that will need to be established through the issuing of transitional rules and regulations under the Electoral Act. Transitional rules primarily deal with moving from financial year to calendar year reporting. Regulations primarily deal with the rules around advanced election funding, dates those payments can be requested and dates they will be paid.
Transition
From 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, the current financial year-based disclosure framework continues to apply. This means that any donations made for a federal purpose during this period are subject to the current disclosure threshold of $17,300 and the existing obligations under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
Transition
To support fairness, any question and answer that may benefit the broader community will be shared publicly.
If your query relates specifically to your organisation or unique circumstances, we’ll note it and follow up where appropriate — however, we’re unable to provide individual legal or bespoke advice.
Our aim is to ensure clarity and equitable access to information for all members of the regulated community as
the reforms progress.
If you have a question that isn’t currently answered on the website, you can submit it here.
Where feasible, we’ll publish responses publicly on this website to ensure transparency and equitable access to information.
Some questions may require more detailed consideration as we continue to interpret the legislation. In these cases, we’ll take the question on notice and provide an update once accurate and meaningful advice is available.
The AEC acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.