Miscellaneous Receipts Act § 3302: Deposits, Exceptions, Penalties

The Miscellaneous Receipts Act, at 31 U.S.C. § 3302, sets the deposit requirements for federal money: any official or agent who receives money on the government’s behalf must deposit it in the Treasury as soon as practicable, without deducting anything for fees or claims, unless a specific statute says otherwise.¹ The rule enforces a constitutional principle that Congress alone controls federal spending, and no agency may sidestep that authority by keeping collections for its own use.²

What the Statute Requires

Section 3302 imposes two obligations. Subsection (a) governs custody: an official holding public money must keep it safe and may not lend it, use it, deposit it in a private account, or exchange it for other amounts.¹ These prohibitions are absolute. Parking public funds in a personal account while paperwork is processed violates the statute, even briefly.

Subsection (b) is the deposit rule itself. Money received for the government from any source must go into the Treasury as soon as practicable, and no charges or claims may be deducted before it gets there.¹ The only carve-out written into subsection (b) is for private debt-collection contracts under 31 U.S.C. § 3718, which allow collection firms to take their fees out of recovered amounts before remitting the balance.³

What Money Is Covered

The phrase “from any source” is deliberately broad. It reaches administrative fees for government services, civil fines, monetary penalties from settlements and enforcement actions, interest earned on federal funds, and proceeds from selling government property. If money arrives at a federal agency and is not a congressional appropriation, the default rule is that it belongs in the Treasury.

Gifts are covered too. An unconditional monetary gift to the United States must be deposited as a miscellaneous receipt unless a specific statute lets the receiving agency keep it. Agencies cannot accept donations to pay employee salaries or fund their own programs, because that would push their spending authority past what Congress approved.¹ The breadth matters because it stops officials from carving out a particular revenue stream just because Congress did not name it in a budget bill. Cash, checks, wires, card payments: the obligation is the same.

Deposit Timing

The statutory default is three days: public money must be deposited no later than the third day after the custodian receives it.¹ Section 3302(c)(2) lets the Secretary of the Treasury prescribe different periods by regulation, either shorter or longer.

The Treasury Financial Manual tightens things for over-the-counter collections. Receipts totaling $5,000 or more on a given day must be deposited that same day, before the depositary’s cutoff. Below that threshold, the agency may accumulate collections during the week, but a deposit must be made no later than Thursday regardless of total. Agencies using check capture technology must scan daily even when check totals are under $5,000.⁴

Delay costs the government real interest earnings and can trigger compliance reviews. A common failure point: holding a batch of small checks past Thursday, hoping the total will grow before the next deposit. That is already out of compliance.

How Deposits Are Documented

Every deposit into the Treasury carries two identifiers. The Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) is assigned by Treasury to an individual appropriation, receipt, or other fund account. The Business Event Type Code (BETC) is an eight-character code that classifies the activity, such as a payment or collection.⁵ Both must accompany every transaction reported through the Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS), the government’s electronic system of record for financial data.⁶

Paper-based deposits use Standard Form 215, the Deposit Ticket, for credit to a Treasury General Account at an authorized depositary. The form requires the depositor’s Agency Location Code (ALC), a numeric identifier the Bureau of the Fiscal Service uses to tell which office made the deposit.⁷ Custodians also document the source of the funds and the legal authority for the collection.

Electronic transactions increasingly move through Pay.gov and the Over-the-Counter Channel (OTCnet), which handle card payments, ACH transfers, and check capture. Once the money reaches the Treasury, the custodian reconciles the confirmation against internal accounting records to make sure the deposit matches the original ticket.⁶

Exceptions That Let an Agency Keep the Money

The default rule is absolute. Any exception must be explicitly authorized by statute, and an agency cannot infer retention authority from its general mission or organic statute. Without a specific provision in a public law permitting retention, the money goes to the Treasury.

The recognized categories include:

Revolving funds, which Congress creates to let an agency retain collections and finance ongoing operations without a fresh appropriation each year. Agencies cannot create these administratively.⁸
Interagency reimbursements under the Economy Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1535, which lets one agency order goods or services from another and pay for them, with the receiving agency keeping the payment to cover its costs.⁹
Statutorily authorized user fees. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for instance, is authorized to retain certain patent examination fees and credit them to its own appropriation account.¹⁰
Debt-collection contracts under 31 U.S.C. § 3718, in which private firms deduct their fees from recovered amounts before remitting the balance.³
Offsetting collections, where a specific statute lets an agency subtract expenses from the revenue it generates and report only the remainder. These netting authorities are narrowly drawn.

When the statutory authority does not clearly permit retention, the safe course is to deposit.

Why a Missed Deposit Escalates

The Miscellaneous Receipts Act is the enforcement arm of a broader fiscal rule: agencies cannot augment their own budgets from outside sources without specific statutory authority. The GAO calls this the prohibition against augmentation of appropriations. An agency augments when it uses money from sources other than its congressionally approved budget to cover expenses, effectively spending more than Congress authorized.¹¹

That is where a deposit failure connects to something bigger. When an agency keeps money instead of depositing it, it has more cash on hand than Congress gave it. The Comptroller General treats any obligation made with improperly retained funds as being in excess of the amount available in the agency’s appropriation.¹² That triggers the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal officers from making expenditures or obligations exceeding available appropriations.¹³ A single deposit violation can cascade into an Antideficiency Act violation the moment the retained money is spent.

Personal Penalties for Non-Compliance

The statute provides two direct consequences. Under 31 U.S.C. § 3302(d), a non-compliant official may be removed from office and may be required to forfeit to the government any part of the money they hold, including amounts they might otherwise be entitled to.¹ The forfeiture is personal. It reaches the individual, not just the agency.

Criminal exposure sits alongside in 18 U.S.C. § 643. A federal officer, employee, or agent who receives public money they are not authorized to retain as salary or pay and fails to account for it is guilty of embezzlement. The penalty is a fine equal to the amount embezzled (or the standard fine, whichever is greater) and up to ten years in prison. If the amount is $1,000 or less, the maximum drops to one year.¹⁴ The statute applies even without intent to steal; failing to properly account is enough.

When the deposit failure leads to an Antideficiency Act violation because the retained funds were spent, additional penalties apply. An officer or employee who knowingly and willfully violates the Antideficiency Act can be fined up to $5,000, imprisoned for up to two years, or both, and administrative sanctions including suspension and removal are available.¹⁵ The layering of these statutes means a missed deposit deadline can end a career or, in the worst cases, produce a criminal prosecution.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3302 – Custodians of Money
2
Constitution Annotated. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3718 – Contracts for Collection Services
4
Treasury Financial Experience. Chapter 2000 Depositing Domestic Checks and Cash Received in Over the Counter (OTC) Collections
5
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Glossary – Government-wide Treasury Account Symbol (GTAS)
6
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS)
7
Treasury Financial Experience. TFM Volume III Part 2 Chapter 1000 – Deposits For Credit To Treasury’s General Account
8
U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO-24-107270, Revolving Funds: Key Features
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1535 – Agency Agreements
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 35 USC 41 – Patent Fees; Patent and Trademark Search Systems
11
United States Government Accountability Office. Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, Third Edition, Volume II
12
DoD Standards of Conduct Office. DoD Fiscal Law Deskbook
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1341 – Limitations on Expending and Obligating Amounts
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 643 – Accounting Generally for Public Money
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1350 – Criminal Penalty