Political party donations and loans in Northern Ireland

Before you complete and submit a donations and loans report you should make sure that you have carried out permissibility checks on all donations over £500 and recorded relevant details.

Donations you have accepted

If you accept a donation over £500, you must record:

• the required details for the type of donor (please see Who can you accept donations and loans from? for guidance on the details you must record for each type of source)1
• the section of the party that has accepted the donation (central party or accounting unit)2
• the amount (for a monetary donation) or nature and the value of the donation (for a non-monetary donation)3
• the date you received the donation
• the date you accepted the donation4
   

Donations you have returned

If you receive a donation over £500 from an impermissible source, you must record these details:

• the name and address of the donor (unless the donation was given anonymously)5
• the amount (for a monetary donation) or nature and value of the donation (for a non-monetary donation)6
• the manner in which the donation was made7
• the date you received the donation8
• the date you returned the donation9
• the action you took to return the donation (for example, the person or institution you returned it to)10  

You can find a definition of the term ‘anonymous donation’, in Choosing a crowdfunding platform.

Crowdfunding platform fees

Crowdfunding platforms may charge fees for donation transactions, transfers of funds, and for using their platform. 

If your crowdfunding page advertises your party, then the fee for using the platform will count as party spending under the Advertising category. If this fee is incurred during a regulated period, you will need to report these details in your spending return. You can find more information about the regulated period for a particular election by using our Report election spending search page

If you are unsure whether your crowdfunding page advertises your party, please contact us for advice.

Reporting donations and spending

You can find information on reporting requirements on the Which donations and loans do you need to report? page of our guidance.

If you are unsure about which reporting requirements apply, you can contact us for advice.