Section 2 AAC 50.855 - Penalty assessment procedure(a) If, no later than 30 days after the due date, a person responsible for filing a registration, statement, or report required under AS 15.13, AS 24.45, AS 24.60.200-24.60.260, or AS 39.50 that is late or incomplete corrects the deficiency, the commission staff shall assess a penalty. The amount of the penalty must be determined by multiplying the applicable daily maximum penalty set out in AS 15.13.390, AS 24.45.141, AS 24.60.240, or AS 39.50.135 by the number of days the registration, statement, or report was late or incomplete. The number of late or incomplete days includes each day following the due date of the registration, statement, or report through the day a registration, statement, or report that substantially complies with the filing requirement is mailed or delivered to the commission.(b) Notwithstanding (a) of this section, (1) for late filing of a statement or report required under AS 24.60.200 - 24.60.260 or AS 39.50, the staff shall document the violation and(A) shall waive the assessed penalty if(i) the late filing is an initial report due from a first-time filer who is also a first-time member of a board or commission who was not notified of the required filing by the staff of that board or commission; or(ii) the late filing is from a member of the national guard or military reserves called to active duty during the period from 60 days before the due date to 60 days after the due date;(B) shall reduce the assessed penalty to 25 percent of the maximum penalty under AS 24.60.240 or AS 39.50.135 if the person is a first-time filer and the late filing is a candidate disclosure statement;(C) shall reduce the assessed penalty to 50 percent of the maximum penalty if (i) the person is not a first-time filer: or (ii) the late filing is a final statement due after leaving office; and(D) shall reduce the assessed penalty to 75 percent of the maximum penalty for all other late filings under this paragraph:(2) for late filing of or an error in a registration, statement, or report required under AS 15.13, the staff shall document the violation and (A) may not assess a penalty if (i) the person is a first-time filer; (ii) there were multiple or multi-day technical issues with the electronic filing system, or a day-long technical issue on the filing due date, that prevented the person from timely filing;(iii) the late filing is from a member of the national guard or military reserves called to active duty during the period from 60 days before the due date to 60 days after the due date;(iv) for a statement of contributions, the reporting error was the person's first error, and the contribution was reported by the recipient of the contribution within 30 days after the due date for the statement of contributions; or(v) for an independent expenditure report, the reporting error was the person's first error, and the filing is not a report required to be filed within 24 hours;(B) shall reduce the penalty to 25 percent of the maximum penalty if(i) the election cycle is the person's first election cycle and the report is the person's first late-filed report: or(ii) the person self-reports the missing information to the staff and discloses the information to the public within seven days after the date of self-reporting; the penalty stops accruing on the date the person self-reported the error by notifying the staff of the error; filing the late or missing information without notifying the staff of the error does not constitute self-reporting; and(C) shall reduce the penalty to 50 percent of the maximum penalty if (i) the election cycle is the person's first election cycle; or (ii) the amount missing or erroneously reported on a filing is under $100;(3) for incomplete filings of all types, the staff shall document the violation and (A) may not assess a penalty if the missing 01· incomplete information was readily available to the public through another forum; (B) shall reduce the penalty to 50 percent of the maximum penalty if the missing or incomplete information was not readily available to the public through another forum, but the incomplete report is the tint alleged violation against the person; and(C) shall assess the maximum penalty for all other incomplete reports not addressed under (1) or (2) of this subsection;(4) the staff may not assess a penalty if the amount of the reporting error or the amount of a transaction missing in a report is less than $100 and is promptly corrected (A) without receiving a notice from the staff; or (B) within the time allowed by any notice of deficiency from the staff; or(5) for reports required under AS 15.13.110(a)(2) or (b), the staff shall assess a penalty of not more than $500 per day for each day a deficiency exists before the relevant election and reduce the penalty to $50 per day for each day a deficiency remains uncorrected after the relevant election, if the staff has received no evidence of an aggravating factor under 2 AAC 50.865(d); the amount of a penalty assessed under this paragraph is limited to not more than five times the amount of the expenditure or contribution erroneously reported or unreported.(c) When the staff assesses a penalty in compliance with (a) of this section, the staff shall, no later than 14 working days after receiving the materials that correct the deficiency, mail or deliver a written penalty assessment to the person responsible for filing the registration, statement, or report. The written penalty assessment must show the calculation of the penalty, and must state that the person responsible may appeal the penalty assessment as provided in 2 AAC 50.831 and 2 AAC 50.860.(d) If the commission does not receive a required registration, statement, or report, or material information needed to complete a registration, statement, or report, or receives it later than 30 days after the due date, the staff shall assess a penalty as set out in this section. The written penalty assessment must also inform the person responsible for the registration, statement, or report that the amount of the penalty will continue to increase each day until the registration, statement, or report, and all material information required in the registration, statement, or report, is mailed or delivered to the commission. The staff shall also inform the person responsible for the registration, statement, or report that the staff will initiate action to enforce the remedies described in the applicable provisions of 2 AAC 50.850.Eff. 12/22/2011, Register 200; am 1/16/2015, Register 213, April 2015; am 12/21/2016, Register 220, January 2017Authority:AS 15.13.030
AS 15.13.390
AS 24.45.021
AS 24.45.141
AS 24.60.220
AS 24.60.240
AS 24.60.260
AS 39.50.050
AS 39.50.060
AS 39.50.070
AS 39.50.080
AS 39.50.135