Electronic Filing Application
A local filer is one that runs for and/or holds an office that may include county offices (county commissioner, tax assessor/collector, city chair, constable, justice of the peace, sheriff, etc.), city offices (mayor, council member, secretary, etc.), or political subdivision offices (school board, community college trustee, municipal utility district, water district, etc.). All Specific-Purpose PACs (SPAC) that support or oppose any of these candidate/officeholders or that support or oppose a measure in a local election are local PAC organizations and must file reports with the appropriate local filing authority. There is one exception: SPACs that support or oppose school bonds are required to file reports with the Texas Ethics Commission. You are a filer type SPAC, JSPC, or ASIF-SPAC.
To use the electronic filing application, you must setup a filer id/account. This filer id is your selected email address. All passwords are sent to this address. Go to the registration page and select that you are not a TEC filer in order to create your new local filer account.
When you create your report electronically, you will use the print preview option of the application to print the report. There will be no treasurer information included on the cover sheet pages. You must fill this in by hand. You may then deliver your report to your local filing authority.
If you don't know if you have a Filer ID, see Filer ID below.
If you can't login to your account because you forgot your password, you can click Forgot Password? at the login screen to reset your password. For more information, see Forgot Password below.
If you already have a Filer ID and will be filing electronically, use the LOGIN below to access your account. If you are not sure if you file electronically, see Who Has to File Electronically? below.
If you qualify to file paper reports, remember EACH REPORT must be accompanied by the proper exemption affidavit. Speaker reports can only be filed electronically.
If you are a new filer and are unsure whether you file with TEC or a local filing authority, see "Filing as TEC or Local Filer?". All TEC filers will be assigned an 8 digit Filer ID number, sometimes called an account number, like 00049300. The only exception to this rule are Governor For A Day and Speaker Day Reunion filers which do not have filer id's and file on paper only.
If you are a TEC filer and do not have a filer id, you will most likely need to file a Treasurer Appointment form in order to be assigned a number. Exception filers that do not file a TA in order to be assigned a filer id:
- DCE filers that are organized as a PAC commonly refered to as Super PAC will need to file a Statement to Act as Direct Campaign Expenditure Only Committee affidavit.
- LEG filers will need to send a letter to the commission indicating that they are being created. See the Guidelines for Forming Legislative Caucus.
- SPK filers will need to send a Declaration of Speaker Candidacy to the commission even though they will use the same filer id as they use for their candidate/officeholder account.
- Lobbyists will need to file Filer ID Request/Name Change form.
- Appointees will need to have a letter sent by their appointer (usually the governor or an executive head).
If you are a new TEC filer and do not qualify to file on paper, you must also submit a Form SECURITY to gain access to the Commission’s electronic filing application.
The filing application can be started by using a personal computer or laptop, a Mac desktop computer or MacBook, or a Tablet to bring up a browser window. Acceptable browsers and their minimal version level are:
- Chrome 4
- Firefox 15
- Opera 12.1
- Safari 4
- Internet Explorer 9 (IE is no longer supported by Microsoft and is not recommended)
Importing Contributions and Expenditures from a Spreadsheet into the ApplicationDue to a change in the law, effective January 20th, 2024, the Texas Ethics Commission changed the Expenditures Import files. All Schedule F4 expenditures need to include the name of the financial institution that issued the credit card that was used for the expenditure transaction along with the dates, if any, during the reporting period on which the credit card company was repaid.
- Campaign Finance Import Guide/Instructions
- Contributions Template
- Expenditures Template
- Expenditures Template (with child records)
- CSV Import File Format Verifier Application
- Video: How to Import Contributions and Expenditures
Forms & Instructions
If you wish to complete your report on paper, the forms are provided below. Some forms also include e-forms (requiring the installation of an editing tool to complete).