To start a political action committee, decide what type of PAC fits your goals, appoint a treasurer and open a dedicated bank account under a new Employer Identification Number, and file Form 1 with the Federal Election Commission within 10 days after your contributions or expenditures cross $1,000 in a calendar year. From there, the work shifts to ongoing compliance: contribution limits, disclaimers on paid communications, and a strict reporting calendar that does not forgive missed deadlines.
Pick the Type of PAC Before Anything Else
The type you choose controls who can give to your PAC, how much they can give, and what you can do with the money. Get this wrong and you either limit yourself unnecessarily or set up legal exposure.
Connected PACs
A connected PAC, formally a separate segregated fund, is sponsored by a corporation, labor union, membership organization, or trade association. The sponsor can pay setup and administrative costs out of its treasury, but the PAC can solicit contributions only from people tied to the sponsor, such as employees, shareholders, or members. The sponsoring organization cannot put treasury money into the political fund itself.1eCFR. 11 CFR 114.5 – Separate Segregated Funds Use this structure if you’re forming a PAC on behalf of a company or union. Skip it if you want to raise money from the public.
Nonconnected PACs
A nonconnected PAC has no sponsor. It can solicit anyone in the general public, and it pays its own overhead from raised funds. Most PACs started by individuals or informal groups fall into this category, and they can contribute directly to federal candidates and other committees within the applicable limits.2Federal Election Commission. Types of Nonconnected PACs
Super PACs
A Super PAC, officially an independent expenditure-only political committee, can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, unions, and other committees. The trade-off is total: it cannot give any money directly to a candidate and cannot coordinate its spending with any campaign.3Federal Election Commission. Contributions to Super PACs and Hybrid PACs All spending goes to independent expenditures like ads that support or oppose candidates without campaign involvement.
Hybrid PACs
A Hybrid PAC runs two separate bank accounts: a traditional PAC account subject to normal contribution limits that can donate to candidates, and a non-contribution account that behaves like a Super PAC.2Federal Election Commission. Types of Nonconnected PACs The wall between accounts has to be strict. Money from the unlimited side cannot be used to contribute to candidates.
Leadership PACs
A leadership PAC is set up by a sitting federal officeholder or candidate but is separate from that person’s own campaign committee. It follows the same limits as other nonconnected PACs and cannot be used to support the sponsoring officeholder’s own campaign.4Federal Election Commission. Leadership PACs
Put a Treasurer, EIN, and Bank Account in Place
Federal law bars a political committee from accepting contributions or making expenditures without a designated treasurer.5Federal Election Commission. Committee Treasurers The treasurer authorizes every expenditure, deposits contributions within 10 days of receipt, and signs every FEC report. This is not ceremonial. Pick someone detail-oriented, and name an assistant treasurer as a backup.
Every political committee also needs an Employer Identification Number from the IRS. You’ll need it to open the bank account, which must be in the committee’s name using the committee’s EIN rather than any individual’s Social Security number.6Federal Election Commission. Getting a Tax ID and Bank Account You can apply for the EIN online through the IRS or by filing Form SS-4.7Federal Election Commission. All Committees Need an Employer Identification Number Keep political funds fully separate from personal or business finances. Commingling draws FEC attention fast.
Have the following ready before you file: the PAC’s official name, mailing address, treasurer’s name and contact information, custodian of records (often the treasurer), and the bank where the account is held. For a nonconnected PAC, your name cannot include a federal candidate’s name. For a connected PAC, you’ll also need the sponsoring organization’s details.
Register With the FEC on Form 1
A group becomes a political committee once its contributions or expenditures exceed $1,000 in a calendar year. Once you cross that threshold, you have 10 days to register with the FEC by filing Form 1, the Statement of Organization.8Federal Election Commission. Registering as a Super PAC You can register earlier if you want your compliance systems running before the money starts moving.
Form 1 collects the information you already gathered: committee name, address, type, treasurer, connected organization (if any), custodian of records, and bank depository.9Federal Election Commission. Registering a Committee A Super PAC selects the independent expenditure-only designation on Line 5(g). Electronic filing is standard. Any change to the information on your Form 1, including replacing the treasurer, must be filed as an amendment within 10 days.5Federal Election Commission. Committee Treasurers
One boundary worth flagging: FEC registration covers federal activity only. If your PAC will also participate in state or local elections, each state has its own registration rules and thresholds, and you’ll need to check them separately.
Know What Money You Can Accept and Give
Every PAC type has its own contribution ceiling, and some sources of money are prohibited regardless of type. Getting this wrong means returning contributions at best and paying penalties at worst.
What Your PAC Can Accept
For the 2025–2026 cycle, an individual can give up to $5,000 per year to a traditional PAC, connected or nonconnected. A multicandidate PAC can also give $5,000 per year to another PAC.10Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits Super PACs are the exception and can accept unlimited amounts from individuals, corporations, unions, and other committees.3Federal Election Commission. Contributions to Super PACs and Hybrid PACs
What Your PAC Can Give
How much you can send to a federal candidate depends on whether your PAC has become a multicandidate committee. That status requires three things: being registered for at least six months, receiving contributions from more than 50 people, and contributing to at least five federal candidates. Once you qualify, you can give up to $5,000 per election to a federal candidate. Before you qualify, the limit is $3,500 per election for the 2025–2026 cycle.11Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits Chart 2025-2026 That gap matters most in your first months, before you hit the multicandidate threshold.
Sources You Cannot Take Money From
Some contributions are off-limits no matter what type of PAC you run. Foreign nationals cannot contribute to any federal PAC. Federal government contractors are prohibited. National banks and federally chartered corporations face the same ban.3Federal Election Commission. Contributions to Super PACs and Hybrid PACs Corporations and labor unions cannot give treasury money to connected PACs, though they can pay administrative and solicitation costs.1eCFR. 11 CFR 114.5 – Separate Segregated Funds Your treasurer needs a verification routine before depositing anything, because accepting a prohibited contribution is a violation even if you refund it later.
Put Disclaimers on Paid Communications
Every public communication your PAC pays for needs a disclaimer. That includes TV and radio ads, mailers, websites, and mass emails to more than 500 people. The disclaimer must state the name of the PAC that paid for it, provide contact information (street address, phone number, or website), and say whether the communication was authorized by any candidate. For a typical nonconnected PAC running an independent ad, the disclaimer reads something like “Paid for by [PAC Name]” with contact information and a note that it was “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
Television and radio ads add a spoken statement identifying who is responsible for the content, in the format “[PAC Name] is responsible for the content of this advertising.” Disclaimers must be clear and conspicuous. They cannot be shrunk to unreadable text or rushed through at the tail of a broadcast spot.
Plan for the Reporting Calendar
Reporting is where most PACs actually fail. Every PAC that is not an authorized candidate committee files financial disclosures on FEC Form 3X, showing all receipts and disbursements for the period.12Federal Election Commission. FEC Form 3X Instructions
Quarterly or Monthly Filing
You choose between two schedules. Quarterly filers report by April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 31. They also file a pre-election report 12 days before any primary or general election and a post-general report 30 days after the general. Monthly filers report by the 20th of each month, with pre-general and post-general reports replacing the November and December filings in a general election year.12Federal Election Commission. FEC Form 3X Instructions You can switch schedules once per calendar year by notifying the FEC in writing when you file a report.
What Each Report Contains
Every report shows total receipts, total disbursements, cash on hand, and outstanding debts. Any individual contribution that aggregates over $200 in a calendar year must be itemized with the contributor’s name, address, employer, occupation, date, and amount. Disbursements over $200 require the same treatment. That itemization requirement is what makes treasurership demanding: every dollar above the threshold has to be documented.
Electronic Filing Threshold
If your PAC receives or spends more than $50,000 in a calendar year, or expects to, all reports must be filed electronically.13Federal Election Commission. Mandatory Electronic Filing Electronic reports must be received and validated by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the deadline. Weekend and holiday deadlines are not extended, so build a buffer into your workflow.
Fast Filings for Independent Expenditures
If your PAC makes independent expenditures, additional deadlines kick in close to elections. Spending of $10,000 or more on independent expenditures at any point up through the 20th day before an election triggers a 48-hour report, and each additional $10,000 on the same election triggers another. Within the last 20 days before an election, independent expenditures aggregating $1,000 or more must be reported within 24 hours, with the same repeating trigger.14GovInfo. 52 USC 30104 – Reporting Requirements If you plan real election-season spending, your treasurer needs a system that can produce these filings in hours.
Understand the Penalties
The FEC divides enforcement into two tracks. Administrative fines cover reporting failures and follow a formula based on how late a report is, whether it covers an election-sensitive period, and whether the committee has prior violations, with repeat offenders facing a 25% increase for each prior violation in the current and previous two cycles.15Federal Election Commission. Calculating Administrative Fines Late 48-hour notices carry their own penalty tied to the unreported contribution amount.
Substantive violations, like taking a prohibited contribution or exceeding a limit, are handled through civil penalties. For 2025, the FEC’s adjusted civil penalty range runs from $7,445 to $87,056 depending on the nature and severity of the violation.16Federal Election Commission. Commission Adjusts Civil Penalties for 2025 Knowing and willful violations can trigger criminal referrals. The reliable defense is procedural: file on time, itemize everything above $200, and verify every contributor.
Closing the PAC When You’re Done
When you stop raising and spending money, you shut down by filing a termination report. The committee must have stopped taking contributions and making expenditures other than paying off remaining debts and winding-down costs. The termination report goes on Form 3X with the termination box checked and must disclose any receipts and disbursements not previously reported, plus what happens to remaining funds or assets.17Federal Election Commission. Termination Report
Filing the termination report does not end your reporting duty. You must keep filing regular reports until the FEC sends a termination approval letter. If your committee is subject to an enforcement action, audit, or litigation, you cannot terminate until that matter is resolved.17Federal Election Commission. Termination Report PACs with outstanding debts may need to negotiate with creditors and file a debt settlement plan on Form 8 before the FEC approves termination.18Federal Election Commission. Settling Debts for Less Than the Amount Owed Closing cleanly can take months, so start well before you want to be done.