Guidance for Candidates and Agents at local government elections in England

Any spending you have incurred on regulated activities which is used during the regulated period to promote your candidacy, or to criticise other candidates, will count towards your spending limit.1 This includes:

• spending on items or services bought before the regulated period that you use during it
• spending incurred by the candidate or agent
• some items or services given to you free of charge or at a discount that you make use of during the regulated period
• where you have authorised someone else to spend money promoting the candidate

You must report all costs associated with each activity. For example, if you are producing leaflets or advertising, you must include the design and distribution costs.

You can find guidance on the costs associated with each activity in the following pages of the guidance.

VAT

If you have paid VAT on an item, you must include this when reporting the costs of the item in your return. You must still include VAT even if it can be reclaimed as a business expense.

Invoices for payments made to companies based overseas may not always include VAT. If you have paid VAT, you should include this as part of the cost of the item when reporting, even if VAT is not included on the invoice.

For example, you pay for digital material to be published as adverts on a social media platform based overseas. You paid VAT on the adverts, but your invoice does not include VAT. You must still include the VAT you paid when reporting the costs of the adverts in your return. 

Use of items

When you use an item for the first time, you must include the cost.2

Items that are not used

You do not have to report spending on items that are not used (for example if leaflets are never distributed) and this does not count against the spending limit. You should retain the unused material or evidence it was destroyed. 

If you use the leftover items at a later election, you must report the spending on those items at that later election.

Re-use of items

Where you have paid for an item, you must report the full cost at the time of first use, even if you intend to use it again at a future election.

If you do use it again at a subsequent election, you do not have to report the original payment again. There may be some associated costs which must be reported at that election, for example for storage or cleaning.