Nevada Campaign Finance Reports: Deadlines, Limits, and Filing

Nevada campaign finance reports are the Contributions and Expenses (C&E) filings that candidates, political action committees, political parties, and large independent spenders must submit electronically to the Secretary of State under NRS Chapter 294A. In an election year, filers submit quarterly reports plus a pre-election-year report; in off years, a single annual report covers the prior calendar year. Missing a deadline triggers daily fines that escalate the longer you wait, and separate civil penalties can reach $10,000 per violation.

Who Has to File

Every candidate in a primary or general election files C&E reports with the Secretary of State, no matter how little money the campaign raises. There is no opt-out for small campaigns. What changes at $100 is the level of detail: contributions over $100 from a single source must be individually itemized with the donor’s name, address, and date, while smaller donations are reported as a lump sum.¹

PACs, political parties, and party-sponsored committees are pulled in once they receive more than $1,000 in contributions or spend money for or against a candidate. For these groups the itemization threshold is $1,000, not $100.² Anyone making an independent expenditure over $1,000 falls under the same reporting regime. Recall committees and ballot question committees have their own parallel requirements under Chapter 294A.³

Candidates who end their campaigns or leave office still have to file. NRS 294A.350 requires continued reporting until all obligations are met.

2026 Reporting Deadlines

Because 2026 is an election year, candidates, PACs, parties, and independent expenditure filers follow a five-report schedule. Each report is due by the 15th of the month after the reporting period closes:⁴

January 15, 2026 — covers January 1 through December 31, 2025.
April 15, 2026 — covers January 1 through March 31, 2026.
July 15, 2026 — covers April 1 through June 30, 2026.
October 15, 2026 — covers July 1 through September 30, 2026.
January 15, 2027 — covers October 1 through December 31, 2026.

In non-election years, filers submit one annual report by January 15 covering the entire prior calendar year.¹

Special and Recall Elections

Special elections compress the timeline into three reports:

Four days before early voting begins, covering the period from nomination through five days before early voting.
Four days before the special election, covering the gap through five days before election day.
Thirty days after the special election, covering the remaining period through election day.

Recall elections use the same compressed schedule, except the clock starts when the notice of intent to circulate a recall petition is filed rather than from nomination.¹ When a special election falls on the same day as a regular primary or general election, the regular calendar controls.

What Each Report Must Include

A candidate’s report must list every contribution over $100 individually, with the contributor’s name, address, and the date the money was received. If a donor gives multiple smaller amounts that add up to more than $100 in a single reporting period, those cumulative contributions must also be itemized as if they were one large donation. Contributions of $100 or less that never cross that cumulative line go in as a lump-sum total.¹

On the expense side, every campaign expense over $100 must be itemized, any surplus funds disposed of under the applicable statutes must be reported, and smaller expenses are totaled. Each report must also show the account balance at the close of the period.⁵

PACs and political parties use the $1,000 threshold for both single and cumulative contributions, with the same name/address/date detail required for every itemized entry.²

In-Kind Contributions Count

Nevada’s definition of “contribution” sweeps in anything of value beyond uncompensated volunteer time. Paid polling, direct mail, phone solicitation, printed campaign materials, and loaned paid staff all count.³ A true volunteer is excluded, but once someone else is paying for that person’s time, the payment is a reportable in-kind contribution.

In-kind contributions go on a separate form provided by the Secretary of State. The same $100 itemization threshold applies, and in-kind campaign expenses over $100 are reported separately as well.³

Contribution Limits and Prohibited Sources

NRS 294A.100 caps how much any single contributor can give to a candidate on a per-election basis, so a donor can give up to the cap for a primary and again for a general. Individuals, corporations, unions, PACs, and political parties all share the same ceiling.³

Foreign nationals are banned outright. NRS 294A.325 prohibits anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident from contributing to any Nevada candidate, PAC, recall committee, political party, or election-related nonprofit, and the ban extends to indirect contributions. Knowingly accepting foreign-national money is a violation. The statute provides a safe harbor: if a candidate has reason to suspect a contributor might be a foreign national, requesting and obtaining a copy of the contributor’s current U.S. passport satisfies due diligence, so long as the candidate lacks actual knowledge the person is foreign.³

Advertising Disclosures

Spending on campaign communications triggers rules separate from the C&E reports. Any person, PAC, or party spending more than $100 on a public advertisement for or against a candidate must identify who paid for it on the ad itself. If the candidate approved it, the ad must say so and include the paying entity’s street address, phone number, and website.³

These requirements run across television, radio, print, outdoor advertising, direct mail, and text messages. Paid political statements published within 60 days of a general or special election, or 30 days of a primary, must also disclose whether the person publishing the statement was paid and by whom. A candidate’s own communication that uses the candidate’s name satisfies the disclosure automatically.³

Filing Through Aurora

All C&E reports and financial disclosure statements are filed electronically through Aurora, the Secretary of State’s online system.⁴ After creating an account, filers enter contribution and expense data into web forms that mirror the paper versions, certify the report, and submit it.⁶ Submission moves the report from draft to permanent public record and produces a filing receipt. Save that receipt. It is your proof of timely filing if a penalty dispute ever comes up.

Amending a Report

If you catch a mistake after filing, resubmit the full corrected report through Aurora rather than just the changed lines. When an amendment changes your cash-on-hand or cumulative totals, any later reports affected by that change should be corrected too. File the amendment quickly: the late-filing penalties below run from the original deadline, not from the day you noticed the error.

Late Filing Penalties

NRS 294A.420 scales the daily fine by how far past the deadline you file:

1 to 7 days late: $25 per day.
8 to 15 days late: $50 per day.
More than 15 days late: $100 per day.

Those fines compound quickly. A report three weeks late can run past $1,000 before anyone reviews its contents. For violations beyond simple lateness, the statute authorizes civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation plus court costs and attorney’s fees.⁷

One narrow exception: a public officer who serves without compensation and had no contributions or expenditures during the reporting period faces a maximum total penalty of $100, no matter how late the filing. That covers local board members who handle no campaign money but still owe the paperwork.⁷

Looking Up Reports Other People Filed

Every report filed through Aurora becomes part of a searchable public database. Filings are available from 2004 forward, with individual contribution and expenditure records from 2006 on.⁸

The database offers four search paths: candidate lookup by name, party, office, jurisdiction, or election year; group lookup by PAC name, type, or election year; a contributions search by contributor, recipient, amount, or date; and an expenditures search by payee, payer, amount, or expense type. Results export for outside analysis.⁸

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Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 294A.120 – Candidate Required to Report Contributions Received and Account Balances in Reporting Periods
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Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 294A.140 – Certain Persons, Committees and Political Organizations Required to Report Contributions Received in Reporting Periods
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Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code Chapter 294A – Campaign Practices
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Nevada Secretary of State. Campaign Finance Reporting Requirements
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Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 294A.200 – Candidate Required to Report Campaign Expenses and Disposed Amounts in Reporting Periods
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Nevada Secretary of State. Nevada Secretary of State Aurora CE/FD Filing System
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Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 294A.420 – Civil Penalties
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Nevada Secretary of State. Nevada Contributions and Expenses Reports / Financial Disclosure Statements Search