16-921. Exemptions from definition of expenditure

A. A person may make any expenditure not otherwise prohibited by law.

B. The following are not expenditures:

1. The value of an individual's volunteer services or expenses that are provided without compensation or reimbursement, including the individual's:

(a) Travel expenses.

(b) Use of real or personal property.

(c) Cost of invitations, food or beverages.

(d) Use of e-mail, internet activity or social media messages, only if the individual's use is not paid for by the individual or any other person and if the e-mails, social media messages or other internet activities do not contain or include transmittal of a paid advertisement or paid fund-raising solicitation.

2. The value of any news story, commentary or editorial by any broadcasting station, cable television operator, video service provider, programmer or producer, newspaper, magazine, website or other periodical publication that is not owned or operated by a candidate, a candidate's spouse or any committee.

3. The payment by any person to defray a political party's operating expenses or party-building activities, including:

(a) Party staff and personnel.

(b) Studies and reports.

(c) Voter registration, recruitment, polling and turnout efforts.

(d) Party conventions and party meetings.

(e) Construction, purchase or lease of party buildings or facilities.

4. The value of any of the following to a committee:

(a) Interest earned on the committee's deposits or investments.

(b) Transfers between committees to reimburse expenses and distribute monies raised through a joint fund-raising effort, except that contributions shall be allocated as described in the fund-raising solicitation and expenses shall be allocated in the same proportion as contributions.

(c) Payment of a committee's legal or accounting expenses.

(d) An extension of credit for goods and services on a committee's behalf by a creditor if the terms are substantially similar to extensions of credit to nonpolitical debtors that are of similar risk and size of obligation. The creditor must make a commercially reasonable attempt to collect the debt, except that if an extension of credit remains unsatisfied by the committee after six months the committee is deemed to have received a contribution but the creditor is not deemed to have made a contribution.

5. The value of nonpartisan communications that are intended to encourage voter registration and turnout efforts.

6. Any payment by a person that is not a committee to a filing officer for arguments in a publicity pamphlet.

7. Any payment for legal or accounting services that are provided to a committee.

8. The payment of costs of publishing a book or producing a documentary, if the publication and production are for distribution to the general public through traditional distribution mechanisms or a fee is obtained for the purchase of the publication or viewing of the documentary.

C. This section does not imply that any transactions that are not specifically listed in subsection B of this section are expenditures unless those transactions otherwise meet the definition of expenditure as defined in section 16-901.