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The federal regime

How Australian federal donation regulation works, why the rules shift on 1 January 2027, and how Together models the difference.

This page explains the Commonwealth Electoral Act's donation regime, the looming 2027 change, and how Together's data model handles both regimes side by side. Read this before filing your first return.

Two regimes, one platform

The Australian Parliament passed amendments in 2024 that take effect on 1 January 2027. Until then, donations are regulated under the older financial-year regime. From 2027, a stricter calendar-year regime with explicit caps applies. Together stores donations in a single ledger but evaluates them under the regime in force at the time of the donation date.

AspectPre-2027 regime (FY-based)Post-2027 regime (CY-based)
Reporting periodFinancial year (1 July - 30 June)Calendar year (1 January - 31 December)
Disclosure thresholdIndexed annually. FY 2025-26 = $17,300. FY 2026-27 = $17,900 (truncated 31 Dec 2026).$5,000 at commencement, indexed each 1 January following a general election.
Per-donor annual capNone$50,000 per donor per calendar year
Normal reporting deadlineAnnual return at end of October following the FY21st of the following month
Election-period reportingNo distinct regime7 days after each donation through the campaign; 24 hours per donation in the week either side of polling day

The 1 January 2027 boundary is a hard cut: FY 2026-27 is truncated to 31 December 2026 (six months instead of twelve), and the first calendar-year period covers 1 January to 31 December 2027.

Why the change

The shift from financial year to calendar year aligns with the federal election cycle and makes it easier for the AEC to enforce per-donor caps. The $5,000 disclosure threshold (down from the indexed ~$18,000) widens the disclosure net substantially: many donors who never appeared on returns under the old regime will appear under the new one.

The $50,000 cap is the first real ceiling on per-donor influence in federal politics. It applies per donor per calendar year and across all funds the donor gives, regardless of which entity received the money.

How Together maps donations to periods

Every donation has a donation date (when the donor intended to give, not when money settled). Together evaluates each donation against the regime in force on that date:

The dashboard, alert thresholds, and disclosure totals all use this mapping. If you back-date a donation across a regime boundary, Together re-evaluates it against the new regime; check the dashboard afterwards.

What "FCA money" means

The Commonwealth Electoral Act distinguishes federal campaign account money (FCA) from money used for non-electoral purposes. The cap and disclosure rules apply to FCA money. Money in your federal campaign account is FCA; money in a state-campaign account or operating account is not.

Together can't guess which donations are FCA from the donation data alone. You tell it through the revenue-code library at Settings -> Compliance -> Revenue codes; see Set up revenue codes. You assign each code to a jurisdiction, and every donation attached to the code inherits it - codes set to Federal carry FCA money. Change a code's jurisdiction and historical donations re-classify automatically.

What "donor" means under the regime

The cap and threshold apply per donor, not per donation. Together resolves donors by aggregating donations under one donor record. Two operations can change a donor's period total:

For sole traders giving personally and through a company, the regime treats the two as separate donors with separate caps. Together respects that distinction by classifying donors as Individual or Organisation on the donor record. Don't auto-merge across donor types unless you're certain compliance treats them as the same legal person.

One donor, a cap position per jurisdiction

The federal regime is one of several Together tracks. Caps and disclosure obligations are always evaluated per jurisdiction — a donor can sit under more than one cap at once, and Together never collapses them into a single number. Each donor has a Compliance tab (open a donor from Donors, then Compliance) that lays this out one section at a time.

A donor's compliance tab, laid out by jurisdiction: the federal cap gauge showing this donor has exceeded the annual cap, their disclosure-obligation ledger, and a separate section noting state regimes whose donations are tracked but not yet monitored.
A donor's cap position and disclosure obligations, one section per jurisdiction. Captured under the post-2027 clock.

Each in-force jurisdiction gets its own section: a cap gauge showing how much of that jurisdiction's annual cap the donor's counted giving has used (and which band they're in), and a disclosure-obligation ledger listing every return-worthy gift with its status and deadline. Where Together doesn't yet monitor a jurisdiction's regime — a state scheme that hasn't commenced, for example — that section says so plainly: the donations are tracked, but cap and disclosure monitoring is on the roadmap. The federal section is the one to read first; the others fill in as each regime comes into force.

Returns are evidence, not enforcement

Together prepares the data; the AEC enforces. A donation that classifies as FCA with an aggregate over the threshold is a return-worthy data point, not yet a filed return. Filing happens through the AEC's own return process. Together's disclosure view tells you what to file; the actual filing is your team's responsibility.

If you spot a breach that's already settled (e.g., you didn't have Together earlier and now a historical donor exceeds the post-2027 cap), follow the AEC's voluntary-disclosure process. The historical-breach list at Compliance -> Disclosures surfaces exactly this case.

What to do next