Personal Financial Disclosure

Are You Concerned About Personal Financial Disclosure?

In this world personal financial disclosure has become more and more on the minds of Americans as far as their congressman are concerned. This article is going to look at personal financial disclosure and what is required from those members.

Personal Financial Disclosure – A Brief Summary

In 1978 Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act which described what congressmen would have to do as far as personal financial disclosure is concerned. Basically all members of Congress must file personal financial disclosure documents. In addition any staff member paid more than 120 percent of the minimum pay must also file personal financial disclosure documents.

These documents must be filed each year by May 15th for the previous year and can be viewed at either the Office of Public Records or the Legislative Resource Center.

Included in the documents are a number of categories that each member must fill out. These include earned income, payments in lieu of charity, assets and unearned income, transactions, liabilities, gifts, travel payments and reimbursements, and outside positions. These are just some of the things that your congressmen are supposed to report.

The earned income section must list all income including the source, type and amount for any source exceeding $200 in the past year. The spouse of the reporter is required to report anything over $1000 in the past year.

Payments in lieu of charity must include the source, the activity, amount donated and the date on which it was donated for any monies given to charity in the congressman name. A separate and private list of the charities receiving the money must be filed as well but this document is not made publicly available.

In addition to these congressmen need to report any money they received as gifts, any transaction of assets that could be interpreted as a financial or asset transaction, as well as any liabilities that are owed to them. They also need to report any payments for travel and any reimbursements that were given that total more than $285.

As you can see there are many things that need to be described in a personal financial disclosure. Every incoming credit and money received by your congressmen that is more than a couple hundred dollars needs to be described and document. Penalties for failing to report income in the personal financial disclosure can be very hefty and the US Government takes these reports very seriously. The charges that can be levied against congressmen can go all the way up to felony offenses for what might appear to be minor omissions.