This document contains all the information you need for compliance for merchant accounts. Before you proceed please double check to make sure you know what type of account you are working with by reading this doc.
Please note that this is not legal advice, so you should consult with your counsel and compliance team when filing reports, but this will help get you going in the right direction. If you are a state-level campaign or organization please make sure you are in compliance with your relevant state compliance laws.
How Donations Work for Merchant Accounts
Merchant account contributions go directly to your own merchant account which is then transferred out to your attached bank account. Unlike conduit accounts, donations for Merchant accounts are not conduited through WinRed PAC nor do they pass through a 3rd party entity of any kind.
This does not change even on slate pages with multiple candidates. If a slate includes a merchant account and a conduit account, both recipient organizations would receive funds based on their individual account-type.
If you are working with a state-level committee, a committee that does not that register with the FEC, or a nonprofit you most likely have a merchant account. You can confirm this by checking the funding type of your account.
Reporting Donations
To report contributions made to your organization, please refer to your individual state's or other governing bodies requirements.
Employer & Occupation Fields
WinRed automatically adds fields to collect donors' employer and occupation info to all donation forms.
If your WinRed account is for a state-level committee from any of the following states, WinRed will automatically also add fields to collect donors' employer address, city, state and zip information:
CA
MI
NH
NJ
ND
OR
VA
WA
PA
RI
Additional Fields
If there is specific donor information you need to collect such as a checkbox, text-box, dropdown or any other field needed for compliance the WinRed team is more than happy to help you set that up on your pages. Please reach out using the chat tool at the bottom right of your screen!
Reporting Processing Fees
WinRed Technical Services LLC deducts a processing fee from each donation. To report these fees to your relevant reporting body please use the following information.
Name: WinRed Technical Services LLC
Address: 1776 Wilson Blvd, Suite 305, Arlington VA 22209
All processing fees are disbursed to WinRed Technical Services LLC
If you need the w9 for WRTS, you can download that here
Please note this information is for processing fees only and not for vendor fees.
Other Types of Fees
WinRed spells out each type of fee in the payout report and payout details view. It is important to check these fees because they are reported differently.
Vendor Fees: If a vendor and a candidate or committee have a fundraising commission arrangement, you can use WinRed's bill-pay feature to automatically collect payment. Think of it as WinRed providing a bill pay service to your candidate. The candidate is paying the fees to the agency as a disbursement, NOT WinRed. You will see extra columns on your payout report for the agency name and the amount.
Merchandise Fees: If you are using WinRed's on demand merchandise program to easily sell merchandise with no upfront cost, you will also see added columns on your payout reports that show the cost of merchandise. These are not credit card fees, but are for the cost of goods sold and reportable to WinRed Technical Services LLC.
Accessing Payout Information
A complete write up of how to access your donor information can be found here.
To adjust the payout schedule refer to this guide.
If you want to receive an email notification for each payout you can learn how to set that up here.
As always, if you need any help please contact the WinRed team using the chat icon at the bottom right of your screen!
Disclaimers