Gift means each of the following:

• A disposition of property, including an amount of money, made by a person or organisation to someone else, without consideration in money or money’s worth or with inadequate consideration;
• The provision of a service, other than volunteer labour, for no consideration or inadequate consideration; and
• The part of an annual subscription paid to a party for membership of the party that is more than $250.

A gift does not include:

• A disposition of property under a will;
• A gift that is given to an individual in a private capacity for the individual’s private use and the individual does not use the gift solely or substantially for a purpose related to an election;
• Affiliation fees paid to a party;
• Compulsory levies paid to a party by a party’s elected representatives;
• Administrative expenditure funding paid by the ACT Electoral Commission; or
• Election funding paid by an electoral commission.

A gift-in-kind is any product or service of value that is provided, without adequate compensation, to a political entity. Examples of gifts-in-kind include free or discounted room hire, free or discounted electoral advertising, or items provided for a fundraising auction.

The following details for gifts-in-kind need to be recorded:

• The total value of the gift-in-kind;
• A description of how the gift was valued;
• A description of the gift; and
• The date of receipt of the gift-in-kind.

When a party grouping, associated entity, non-party MLA or non-party candidate grouping receives a gift, or sum of gifts, totalling $1,000 or more from the same individual or organisation during their relevant disclosure period (see "What are the relevant disclosure periods?" on the General FAQ) from the same individual or organisation, the financial representative for that entity is required to submit a return to the ACT Electoral Commissioner.

This return must detail the name and address of the giver of the gift, the amount of each gift that contributes to the total sum and the date each amount was received.

If the gift is a gift-in-kind, the return must provide a description of the gift, notionally assign the value of the gift and describe how the gift was valued.

There are amendments to the reporting period for regular disclosures that won’t come into effect until 1 July 2024.

• Before 1 July 2024, if the value of the gift or gifts received from a person reaches $1,000 in the financial year, the declaration must be made to the Electoral Commissioner within 7 days of the end of the month in which the total amount received from the person reached $1,000. Any additional gift received from the same person of any value, must be declared within 7 days of the end of the month in which it was received.
• After 1 July 2024, returns must be submitted within 7 days after the total amount received from the same person or organisation reaches $1,000.

If the $1,000 threshold has been reached through multiple gifts from the same person, the due date for disclosure of all gifts from that person is tied to the receipt date of the gift that pushed the total received over the $1,000 threshold.

Additionally, once the total gifts received from the same person reaches the $1,000 threshold, all further gifts regardless of their value must be reported within the relevant reporting period. The reporting requirement is no longer staged in increments of $1,000. See the below example for more information.

When an MLA associated with a party grouping receives a gift or gifts during the relevant period, it is advised that the MLA provides the details of the gift(s) to the party grouping’s financial administrator. This will enable the party grouping to identify occurrences where a single donor may have donated multiple gifts which collectively total $1,000 or more within the party grouping. Regular liaison between the party’s financial administrator and MLAs will assist in ensuring that the party grouping avoids breaching its legal obligations.

Penalties apply for failing to submit a complete gift return within the prescribed period and/or for deliberately submitting a false or misleading return.

Example:

Say a party receives a gift of $750 from ‘Person A’ on 25 November 2023 and receives a further gift of $750 from Person A on 6 March 2024. As the party has now received a total of over $1,000 from the same individual (in this example $1,500), and as the receipt of the gift that pushed the total amount received over the $1,000 threshold was received on 6 March 2024, the party must submit a return to the Electoral Commissioner declaring both these gifts no later than 13 March 2024 (that is, within 7 days of the receipt of the second gift).

Then, Person A gives another gift of $750 on 25 May 2024, but this time to an MLA belonging to the party. Although the additional gift is less than $1000, a further return is required to be submitted for that amount within 7 days of the receipt, that is by 1 June 2024.

However, it should be noted that amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, that commenced on 1 December 2020, have had an effect of limiting the operation of the ACT’s funding and disclosure scheme, as legislated by the ACT Legislative Assembly. The effect of the Commonwealth Electoral Act amendments mean that, for a gift or gifts that have been provided to an ACT registered political party that also has registration at the federal level (dual registration), and that have been deposited into a specifically designated federal election account by the political party, the party is not required under Territory law to disclose the gift particulars to the ACT Electoral Commission. Similarly, it also means that for a gift or gifts that have been deposited into a federal account by an associated entity of an ACT registered political party with dual registration, the associated entity is not required under Territory law to disclose the gift particulars to the ACT Electoral Commission.

The date a gift is said to be received depends on the type of gift:

• For a gift of money, the gift is said to be received on the earlier of the date the gift of money is receipted or banked.
• For a “physical” gift-in-kind, the gift is taken to be received on the date the gift came into the possession of the receiver.
• If a gift-in-kind is a service rendered over a period of time, the gift is taken to be received on the date on which the value of the service first reaches $1,000 (if the value of the service is less than $1,000, the applicable date would be the date on which the service ceased to be provided).

Note that reporting requirements for gifts received are tied to the entity’s relevant disclosure period (for further information see the question "What are the relevant disclosure periods?" on the General FAQ page). For party groupings and non-party MLAs, this is a financial year.

Example:

Say Person A donates $800 to a party on June 2. Person A then donates a further $500 on July 17. As the second donation was made in a different financial year to the first one, the party is not required to report the details of Person A’s gifts unless Person A donates at least a further $500 before the following June 30. (Note that the total amounts of all gifts and other receipts received by a party of all values must be summed and disclosed as a total amount received in the party’s annual return.)

Gifts totalling $1,000 or more must be disclosed within the relevant period, regardless of what the gift has been, or will be, used for.

However, an ACT registered political party with dual registration federally or its associated entity is not required under Territory law to disclose the particulars of a gift if it has been immediately deposited into a specifically designated federal election account. It is vitally important that any gifts deposited into a federal election account must not be used for ACT electoral purposes and must not be moved out of the account for a purpose other than a federal electoral purpose. Doing so may expose the entire federal account to Territory law. See the accounts and public funding FAQ for more information.

Yes, unless the gift is from a property developer, a close associate of a property developer, a foreign entity (collectively known as prohibited donors), or a person acting on behalf of a property developer, close associate or foreign entity. See FAQ question below.

A gift from any individual irrespective of his or her place of residence, except a prohibited donor, can be accepted by a party grouping, MLA, associated entity, candidate or third-party campaigner.

Yes, unless the gift is from a prohibited donor - see FAQ question below.

Additionally, any gifts made to a political party or associated entity that have been deposited into a federal election account must not be used for ACT electoral purposes. If any federally allocated funds are used for an ACT electoral purpose or transferred out of the federal account for a purpose other than federal election purposes, Commonwealth electoral law (see FAQ below) ceases to cover all gifts held within the federal election account and full ACT disclosure laws come into effect with respect to those gifts. If gifts received from prohibited donors under ACT law have been deposited into a federal election account and the political party uses any gifts held in that account, whether from a prohibited donor or any other donor, for a purpose other than a federal election purpose, those prohibited donor gifts cease to be covered by Commonwealth electoral law and penalties under ACT law may apply to both the political entity and the giver of the gift.

No. A property developer, a close associate of a property developer, a foreign entity, or a person acting on behalf of a property developer, close associate or foreign entity, cannot give a gift to a political party registered in the ACT, an MLA, a candidate or an associated entity.

Additionally, those political entities are not permitted to accept gifts from a prohibited donors.

However, if a political party has registration at both the ACT and federal levels, and the party pays a gift into a federal account as soon as practicable, the gift is taken to be for federal purposes and the ban on gifts by prohibited donors does not apply.

Note that for political parties that only have registration at the ACT level, the acceptance of gifts from prohibited donors is strictly not allowed.

Refer to definitions of “property developer”, “close associate of a property developer”, "foreign entity" and “political entity” in the prohibited donor fact sheet and Election Funding, Expenditure and Financial Disclosure Handbook.

Penalties apply for breaching this provision.

A fundraising event includes any event, however described, where any part of the funds raised are retained by a political party, an MLA, an associated entity, a candidate or a third party campaigner. Examples might include a dinner or gala for which a political entity is a financial beneficiary.

Fundraising contributions include raffle tickets, items purchased at a fundraising auction, the cost of a meal or beverage, and entry fees to an event such as fees for attending a conference or seminar.

From 1 July 2021, fundraising contributions made by a person or organisation, including entry fees for a fundraising event or items purchased at an auction, are considered a gift to the beneficiary of the fundraising event.  However, the amount of the gift is the amount in excess of the consideration received in return for the fundraising contribution. For example, if a person purchases a ticket to a fundraising dinner for say $250, the amount of the gift is $250 less the cost of providing dinner to that person.

If the figure exceeding the consideration for the fundraising contribution made reaches a total of $1,000 or more, including the cumulative total of other gifts made by the person or organisation in the same financial year, it must be reported to Elections ACT.

The reporting obligation applies to the individual or organisation directly providing the fundraising contribution to the political entity, not necessarily the recipient of the consideration received in return for the fundraising contribution. For example, if person A buys two tickets to a fundraising event valued at $250 each, only the amount of consideration given to person A can be deducted from the $500 total, even though the second ticket is intended for another person.

It is not sufficient for record keeping purposes if person A purchases multiple tickets on behalf of other attendees (that is, each attendee has paid person A for the cost of his or her personal ticket) and the party retains a list of these names. Each purchaser of a ticket must be independently issued a receipt for the consideration received in return for the fundraising contribution to be taken into account as part of the disclosure by the political entity.

On an annual return, all receipts deriving from a fundraising event need to be reported.

A party, MLA, non-party candidate or associated entity is not permitted to accept anonymous gifts of $1,000 or more.

A party, MLA, non-party candidate or associated entity is not permitted to keep more than $25,000 received as anonymous gifts of less than $1000. For non-party candidate groupings, this restriction applies to their relevant disclosure period (for further information see the question "What are the relevant disclosure periods?" on the General FAQ page). Otherwise, this restriction applies per financial year.

It is important to note that the ban on gifts from property developers, their close associates, foreign entities, or a person acting on their behalf, still applies to anonymous gifts. Political entities receiving anonymous gifts must ensure they take reasonable steps to ensure they do not accept prohibited gifts. See ban on gifts by prohibited donors FAQ for more information.

Penalties apply for breaching the above restrictions.