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Lincoln County Republican PartyTreasurerThe Treasurer is extremely important to Lincoln County. He/she greatly affects the public’s perception, trust, and assurance in the organization. It is highly recommended that the Treasurer have qualifications such as financial literacy, attention to detail, timeliness in completing tasks, neat and accurate record keeping. There must be an open and constant line of communication between the Treasurer, Officers, Executive Committee, and Central Committee of Lincoln County about sound financial policies, procedures, and budget oversight.The Lincoln County Treasurer is the officer assigned the primary responsibility of overseeing the management and reporting of the Lincoln County’s finances.The Treasurer has many important duties including: Bank account maintenance – Signing checks, depositing funds, and/or investing excess funds wisely. Financial transaction oversight – Knowing who has access to any of the organization’s funds, any outstanding bills or debts owed, as well as cash flow management. Chair of committees – Serving as a member of the Finance committee and the Budget committee.Budgets – Comparing the actual line item revenues and line item expenses incurred against the approved budget. Reports –Completing required financial reporting forms in a timely fashion and making these forms available to all financial committees. Keep the Executive committee and the County Central Committee regularly informed – It is imperative that the Treasurer keep both committees informed of key financial events and assessment of the Lincoln County fiscal health.Help manage cash flow - Work with the county Executive committee to achieve cash flow goals.Provide compliance material – Help Local campaigns obtain any New Mexico campaign finance materials and information concerning filing of these laws… if they exist.Ultimately, while financial management is the primary focus of the Treasurer, the Executive Committee and the County Central Committee are the final authority in the financial management of Lincoln County.Change Sigs at Banks e.gUnfortunately some of the actions cannot take place until your next formal committee meeting. Until such time the previous signers need to be available to sign checks. The current signature card lists two individuals as authorized to sign and manage the account. They are ________________ and _________________.. No one else is authorized to sign so in the absence of the past treasurer no other individual could sign checks. Not that it is a problem in most cases, but it could be one going forward if someone is out of town and certain checks need to be written when.?Most banks need the following documents in order to bring the account up to date.1. - ?Official minutes that indicate who was elected to what positions, who is authorized to sign checks and who is coming off the account. 2. - ?Signed forms required from past signers indicating they are to withdraw from the account.3. - ?Signed forms required from future authorized signers.4. - ?Future authorized signers are required to provide bank the forms and a scanned copy of their driver’s license.Actions:1. - ?You as Chairman have to insert into March's meeting agenda a clear, and unambiguous formal action item to prepare a set of statements that will go into the formal meeting minutes. That action item are: a) restate who was elected, b) who is going to be authorized to manage and sign checks on the account, a principal and two backups, and c) who is no longer going to be signing checks.2. - ?Diana will take care to publish the results of the action items at the?March 13?meeting. She will publish those minutes so that we can take the minutes to the Bank as the overarching directive.3. - Agree in the meeting as to who the two backups will be on the signature card. I recommend that one of them be you and the second be John Gallagher. If you all wish the two to be someone else then identify them in the minutes along with their title.? PS. Make sure you identify me as "Charles J. Nesbitt" as opposed to "Jack Nesbitt" as Charles J is my formal name that appears on my drivers license.?4. - ?Have the two alternate signers fill out signature forms that I have attached.?5. - ?I will provide Diane a form that she has to sign indicating that she is withdrawing herself from the signature card.6. - ?I will also provide you a copy of the withdrawl form that you all have to get Jaime Shepherd to sign.7. - ?I will collect four forms. One from Diane (withdrawl form) and three from you (one withdrawl form for Jaime and two alternate account signatories. I will collect the forms from you on the 22, 23 or?24 of March?upon my return from South Texas.?8. - ?I will go to the bank on the 22, 23 or 24 with the following in hand: a) Formal minutes from the?March 13?meeting ?b) Two withdrawl forms - one from Diane and one for Jaime ?c) three signature forms - one form e as primary and the two alternates that you obtain at the meeting.?9.- ?Two two alternates have to go see Shelley after I drop everything off. Those two individuals (say it's you and John G.) have to provide Shelley, face to face, their drivers license. Shelley will already have the forms which I will have dropped off.============================================EIN numbers for County Party'sTax identification numbers should be obtained for each county by its officers.? Many counties have opened bank accounts years ago using a Social Security number from one of the party officers. This should be addressed as soon as possible as the individual (or estate) who's SS number was used could have claim for the cash in the bank.? Obtaining a EIN is simple. Apply online at .? When filling out the application, indicate that you are obtaining an EIN for bank purposes only.In connection with obtaining a new EIN, I would suggest incorporating the County Party as a Non-Profit entity.? This would provide some legal cover for County Party officers in the event of a lawsuit. More importantly, it will facilitate banking services with your new bank account much more readily.? Recent federal legislation (Dodd Frank) has changed the banking environment drastically.? Banks are now required to "know their customer" and understand the business purpose for banking.? Unfortunately, County Party politics is a difficult business purpose for them to work through.? Being incorporated as a Non Profit and visible on the state's website gives them the necessary assurance and business presence to feel comfortable in opening the account.? It will save you substantial headaches in the long run.Be aware of the consequences of incorporating and obtaining an EIN.? The County Party is now on the Radar of the IRS.? It will mean a onetime filing of form 8871 Which is a notification to the IRS that you are a political organization and exempt from filing additional tax filings.? In addition, you will need to file form 1120POL ONLY IN THE EVENT YOU HAVE UNRELATED BUSINESS INCOME GREATER THAN $100.? 2.? County party filings with the StateReporting to the State of New Mexico is for non federal account activity.? State filings require full disclosure of ALL ACTIVITY, not just political activity. These reports are designed to reconcile a beginning cash on hand, contributions, any expenditures for any purpose, and an ending cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.? This ending balance should agree with the accounting records of the County Party. ??Leaving any activity from any account off of the report would constitute a violation of the reporting requirement.? Also, reporting requires the occupation of any donor in excess of $250 and specifically prohibits unidentified donations. (No Single anonymous contribution may be accepted in excess of $100...no aggregate amount in excess of $500.? A raffle would violate this rule... it would be better to hire an outside organization or group of individuals to run the raffle and have them contribute (donate) the proceeds back to the party. However, depending on the success of the raffle, you may run into corporate contribution limitations with organizations.? I would suggest alternative forms of fundraising). We should always be in the practice of gathering relevant reporting information from donors to meet the reporting obligation.? This may be difficult considering the types of fundraising events county parties participate in (i.e. raffles, silent auctions, etc).? I wish it were simpler.Best,Mike McCauley, CPA ................
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