131.Section 68 is a counter-evasion provision. Under section 52(2)(b) a donation of £200 or less is disregarded for the purposes of Part IV. This de minimis limit is intended to alleviate the administrative burden on political parties arising from the controls on donations. In particular, a party will not need to verify the source of any sum below the de minimis limit and will not have to record the name and address of the donor. Whilst the £200 threshold reduces the administrative workload on parties, however, it opens up the prospect of evasion of the disclosure requirement by the device of multiple small donations each of which is below the de minimis limit. Section 68 accordingly places a duty on a donor who makes a number of donations to a party in a year, each of which is £200 or less but which in aggregate exceed £5,000, to report the donations to the Electoral Commission. Reports must be delivered to the Commission by the end of January following the year in which the donations were made. The requirement to report to the Electoral Commission is placed on the donor, rather than the registered party concerned, because the latter may not have kept records of the receipt of the individual donations and could not, therefore, verify any information provided by the donor.
Commentary on Sections Part IV: Control of donations to registered parties and their members etc. Chapter III (Sections 62 to 69) : Reporting of donations to registered parties Section 68 : Reporting of multiple small donations