| I. | Covered Employees | |
| A. | Employees, including special government employees, whose positions are classified above GS-15. | |
| B. | Employees whose rate of basic pay is fixed, other than under the General Schedule, at a rate equal to or greater than 120% of the minimum rate of basic pay for a GS-15 1. | |
| C. | Employees in positions which are excepted from the competitive service by reason of being a confidential or policy-making character (Schedule C). | |
| D. | Administrative Law Judges. | |
| II. | General Filing Requirements | |
| A. | Employees occupying designated positions file annually by May 15th. Reports cover the previous calendar year. | |
| B. | Employees acting in a covered position for more than 60 days in the calendar year must file by May 15th. If an employee enters a covered position after November 1st and files a new entrant report, he is not required to file an annual report in May of the following year. | |
| C. | New entrants to covered positions must file within 30 days of assuming the position unless the employee already occupies a covered position, and then a copy of the last report should be provided to the new office. | |
| D. | Employees leaving a covered position must complete a termination report within 30 days of termination unless the employee will be assuming another covered position. In that case, the employee would continue to file annually on May 15th with his new agency. | |
| III. | Distribution and Collection of Reports | |
| A. | JMD Personnel or Bureau Personnel notify DDAEOs when reports are due and provide blank forms. DDAEOs distribute the blank forms and notify each filer of the filing deadline, the need to request an extension if the deadline cannot be met, and who the filer should contact for assistance in completing the form. | |
| B. | DDAEOs collect and review reports for completeness and conflicts and sign directly under the filer's signature as the "other reviewer." | |
| C. | DDAEOs present reports to the head of the component (other than his or her report) for review for conflicts and for signature as the "reviewing official." The original is sent to JMD Personnel, Bureau Personnel, or to another designated repository. | |
| D. | DDAEOs send reports of component heads to the Departmental Ethics Office (DEO) for re-review and transmittal to the Deputy Attorney General or the Associate Attorney General for certification, and transmittal to the repository office and the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), if required. | |
| E. | The component should keep a copy of the report and a certified copy should be sent to the filer. | |
| IV. | Reviewing Reports | |
| A. | The form should be reviewed against the previous year's report to ensure changes on Schedule A are accounted for with a transaction reported on Schedule B if the item was purchased, sold, or exchanged. | |
| B. | All reports must be reviewed within 60 days, but in fairness to the filer, they should be reviewed sooner since they must be made available to the public upon request 30 days after receipt. | |
| C. | If a report is incomplete, the filer should be contacted and asked to provide additional information. An appropriate time frame should be established which would allow the reviewer to review the report within 60 days. Any additional information provided by the filer should be noted on the report, and a statement added under "Comments of Reviewing Official" which states that the corrections were made pursuant to a conversation with the filer. | |
| D. | If a conflict of interest is discovered, or any violation of a law, regulation or executive order, appropriate action should be taken immediately. The course of action should be discussed with the employee by the DDAEO. All possible remedies, including waiver, disqualification or divestiture, should be discussed. | |
| E. | A late filing fee of $200 must be imposed on filers whose reports are received more than 30 days past the deadline, including any extensions. Administrative and/or disciplinary action should be pursued if an employee does not file a report as required. In addition, there is a $50,000 civil penalty for failure to file. | |
| F. | The DEO requests from OGE any exclusions from the filing requirements, including exclusions for reporting certain gifts and for Schedule C employees who do not make policy decisions. | |
| V. | Hints for the Reviewer | |||
| A. | Cover | |||
| 1. | Make sure the form is signed, dated, and the filing status is indicated. | |||
| B. | Schedule A | |||
| 1. | Review Schedule A to ensure there is a check in each block entitled "Valuation of Assets," "Type of Income," and "Amount of Income." (If income is less than $201, the filer need not report the type of income.) | |||
| 2. | If the type of income does not fit into one of the categories, the type should be described under "Other" with the exact amount reported under "Actual Amount." Examples are salary and general partnership income. | |||
| 3. | The threshold for reporting income is $201 and the threshold for reporting assets is $1001 2. | |||
| 4. | In assessing the potential for conflict with a pension plan, it's useful to know if the plan is a defined benefit plan of a defined contribution plan. | |||
| a. | Under a defined benefit plan, an employer agrees to pay the employee a fixed benefit at a certain age. This kind of plan indicates a continuing financial interest in the employer which will generally require disqualification from any matter involving the former employer. If the filer is not yet receiving income from the defined benefit plan, he should report the formula under which his benefit will be calculated. Example: a monthly payment equal to 5% of the high three years' salary based on years of service. | |||
| b. | A defined contribution plan is one where the filer's interest is in the plan's assets, not in the former employer, such as a 401(k) plan. The benefit is dependent on the amount contributed and the performance of the investments. Generally, the assets of a defined contribution plan must be listed separately on the report with a report of the income accrued from each asset. The filer need not report assets separately if the plan is actually a fund created by the plan's manager for the employees. Most such funds meet the test of an excepted investment fund because they generally are widely held; widely diversified; and independently managed. | |||
| 5. | If an asset was sold in total and a capital gain was realized, it should be reported on Schedule A by marking the box "None or less than $1001" under "Valuation of Assets" and reporting the amount of any capital gain under "Income" if above the threshold. The filer also may need to report dividends realized before the asset was sold. | |||
| 6. | The underlying assets of a widely-held, and publicly-traded or widely-diversified fund, where the filer does not control the investments, need not be separately disclosed. Mutual funds generally fall into this category. The filer may check the block marked "Excepted Investment Fund" and does not need to further describe the income from the fund. | |||
| 7. | The filer must report each asset and its income separately for a brokerage account, IRA, pension plan or other investment fund that does not meet the above tests 3. | |||
| 8. | The exact amount of an honorarium received by a spouse must be reported, although the amount of other earned income of a spouse need not be reported. Be sure to ask if spouse has a pension plan if a source of earned income is reported. | |||
| 9. | Federal salary and federal retirement plans including an interest in the Thrift Savings Plan need not be reported. | |||
| 10. | Bank accounts aggregated at $5,000 or less in any one financial institution need not be reported. | |||
| 11. | A capital account, or any money owed from a former employer, is considered to be an asset and must be reported in Block B. Any payout received over the past year must also be reported in exact amount as income. | |||
| 12. | The nature or business of any closely held corporation or partnership should be reported. If the partnership holds assets such as stocks and bonds, the assets and the income attributed to each asset must be reported if the partnership is not publicly traded. | |||
| 13. | Loans owed to the filer, spouse, or dependent child by a spouse, child, parent, or sibling need not be reported. | |||
| 14. | Only an investment portion of an insurance policy needs to be reported. | |||
| C. | Schedule B - Transactions | |||
| 1. | The amount of a transaction reported in Part I is the gross amount of the sale, not just the capital gain. | |||
| 2. | Sales of assets made pursuant to a certificate of divestiture must be so annotated on the form. | |||
| 3. | When a bond matures, this is not a transaction and need not be reported as one although if any reportable income was realized, it should appear on Schedule A. | |||
| 4. | Transactions within mutual funds are not reportable, but purchases or sales of shares of a mutual fund exceeding $1000 must be reported. If purchases and sales are made during the year involving the same fund, they may be reported on one line as "various purchases" or "various sales" made throughout the year and valued in total. | |||
| D. | Schedule B - Gifts, Reimbursements and Travel Expenses | |||
| 1. | The threshold for reporting all gifts from one source is $335 and gifts of $134 or less need not be included in determining the threshold. | |||
| 2. | Travel expenses accepted from a state or local government and travel expenses accepted from a non-federal source under 31 U.S.C. ยง 1353, need not be reported. | |||
| 3. | Food and beverages not consumed in connection with travel need not be reported. This includes in-town meals in restaurants, but meals over $20 still may not be accepted from a prohibited source or given because of the employee's official position. | |||
| 4. | Gifts and reimbursements received by either a spouse or dependent child need not be disclosed if they were received totally independent of their relationship to the filer. | |||
| E. | Schedule C - Liabilities | |||
| 1. | A mortgage on a personal residence that is not rented, and a loan backed by personal property need not be reported. | |||
| 2. | Liabilities owed by the filer, spouse, or dependent child to a spouse, parent, sibling or child need not be reported. | |||
| F. | Schedule C - Agreements or Arrangements | |||
| 1. | If an interest in a former employer such as a capital account; pension, or other benefit plan; severance payment; or a partnership distribution from a former employer is reported on Schedule A, the agreement for any continuation of the interest or payments must be reported on Part II of Schedule C. | |||
| 2. | Any agreement for future employment, leave of absence, or current outside employment must be reported in this Part. | |||
| G. | Schedule D - Positions Held Outside U.S. Government | |||
| 1. | Positions held outside the government during the past two years, except those of a religious, social, fraternal, political, or honorary nature, must be reported. | |||
| 2. | Each position reported must be analyzed carefully with an eye toward conflicts. | |||
| H. | Schedule D - Compensation in Excess of $5000 Paid by One Source | |||
| 1. | This Part is only completed by first-time filers and covers the previous two years. | |||
| 2. | If the nature of the services provided is in regard to a matter that has not been made public and reporting the name of the client would endanger the attorney-client relationship, the filer should simply describe the nature of the services with as much detail as may be provided. | |||
Footnotes:
1 No non-supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorneys are required to file a report because they are in a pay range where the basic rate of pay is lower than 120% of a GS 15, Step 1, even though those at the top of the range with more experience are paid a salary in excess of that amount. Back.
2 Although they are not reflected on the report form, new categories of both income and asset value over $1million must be reported by annotating the form. The new categories for income are between $1,000,001 and $5 million and over $5 million; and for asset value between $1,000,001 and $5 million, between $5,000,001 and $25 million, between $25,000,001 and $50 million and over $50 million. Back.
3 As of the 2001 annual filing season, if a brokerage statement is attached to a report in lieu of entering the data directly on the form, the statement must disclose in a clear and concise fashion all required information. A reviewer must not be required to perform extensive mathematical calculations or compile several sets of values from periodic statements in order to obtain the amount of assets or income. This applies immediately to all new filers and to termination filers after May 31, 2001. Back.
Last Updated:
September 11, 2008