What Are PACs and Super PACs? Limits, Coordination, and Disclosure

The difference between PACs and Super PACs comes down to a tradeoff. A traditional PAC (Political Action Committee) collects capped contributions from individuals and can write checks directly to federal candidates. A Super PAC can raise unlimited money from individuals, corporations, and unions, but it cannot give a dollar to a candidate or coordinate its spending with any campaign. Both register with the Federal Election Commission and disclose their finances, but the rules on where their money comes from and where it can go are sharply different.

The Core Difference at a Glance

A traditional PAC exists to fund candidates. It gathers small, regulated contributions and passes them along to campaigns, party committees, and other PACs within legal limits. A Super PAC exists to spend independently. It runs its own ads and communications for or against candidates, funded by contributions of any size, but it stays walled off from the campaigns it supports.

Everything else flows from that split. The contribution caps, the list of permitted donors, the coordination rules, and the disclosure obligations all follow from whether the committee gives money to candidates or spends on its own.

How a Traditional PAC Works

Federal law treats any group that raises or spends more than $1,000 in a calendar year to influence a federal election as a political committee.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 30101 – Definitions A traditional PAC pools voluntary contributions from individuals and donates to candidates for federal office.

Traditional PACs come in three main forms. A Separate Segregated Fund (SSF) is created by a corporation, union, or trade association and can only accept voluntary personal contributions from eligible people such as employees or members, never money from the parent organization’s treasury. A non-connected committee has no sponsoring organization and can solicit the general public. A leadership PAC is set up by a sitting officeholder or candidate to support other candidates; it is separate from that officeholder’s own campaign committee and cannot pay the officeholder’s personal campaign expenses.2Federal Election Commission. Leadership PACs

Contribution Limits

An individual can give up to $5,000 per year to any single traditional PAC.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 30116 – Limitations on Contributions and Expenditures That money must come from personal funds. Federal law prohibits traditional PACs from taking money directly from corporate or union treasuries.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 U.S. Code 30118 – Contributions or Expenditures by National Banks, Corporations, or Labor Organizations

What the PAC can give to a candidate depends on whether it qualifies as a “multicandidate” committee. A PAC earns that status after it has been registered for at least six months, received contributions from more than 50 people, and given to at least five federal candidates. A multicandidate PAC can contribute $5,000 per candidate per election.5eCFR. 11 CFR 110.2 – Contributions by Multicandidate Political Committees Because the primary and general elections count separately, that means up to $10,000 per candidate across a full cycle.

A PAC that hasn’t hit multicandidate status is capped at the same per-candidate figure as an individual donor: $3,500 per election for the 2025–2026 cycle. That number is indexed to inflation and adjusts every two years.6Federal Election Commission. Limits on Contributions Made by Nonconnected PACs7Federal Election Commission. Contribution Limits Chart 2025-2026

Not every contribution is cash. When a PAC provides goods or services to a campaign, such as polling data or staff time, the value counts as an in-kind contribution at fair market price and applies against the same dollar limits.8Federal Election Commission. In-Kind Contributions With Appreciated Value

How a Super PAC Works

Super PACs, formally called Independent Expenditure-Only Committees, exist because of two 2010 court decisions. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court held that political spending is protected speech under the First Amendment and that the government cannot restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions. Weeks later, in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, a federal appeals court applied that reasoning to the contribution side, finding that “contributions to groups that make only independent expenditures cannot corrupt or create the appearance of corruption.”9Federal Election Commission. Speechnow.org v. FEC

The result is a committee with no cap on incoming money. A Super PAC can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions, and other political committees.10Federal Election Commission. Making Independent Expenditures A single donor can write a seven-figure check. The price of that freedom is absolute: a Super PAC cannot contribute to a candidate, and it cannot coordinate its spending with any campaign.

The Coordination Ban

The wall between a Super PAC and a candidate is what makes the whole arrangement legal. An independent expenditure is spending on a communication such as a television ad or mailer that advocates for a candidate’s election or defeat and is made without any consultation, cooperation, or shared planning with the candidate or their team.10Federal Election Commission. Making Independent Expenditures

A Super PAC cannot ask a campaign where to buy ads, share internal polling with a candidate’s strategists, or time its messaging based on inside information from the campaign. If it does, the spending is reclassified as an in-kind contribution to that candidate. Because Super PACs are barred from contributing to candidates at all, any coordinated expenditure is automatically a federal campaign finance violation. The FEC can impose civil penalties, generally scaled to how much money was involved.

Hybrid PACs

Some committees do both jobs at once. A hybrid PAC, sometimes called a Carey Committee after the 2011 case Carey v. FEC, runs two strictly separate bank accounts under one organization. One account takes limited, source-restricted contributions and gives directly to candidates. The other takes unlimited contributions and spends only on independent expenditures.11Federal Election Commission. Bank Accounts of Nonconnected PACs The two accounts share administrative costs in proportion to their activity, and each side follows the rules that apply to its type.

Who Can Never Contribute

Some money is off-limits regardless of the committee type.

Disclosure and the Dark Money Gap

Both traditional PACs and Super PACs must register with the FEC by filing Form 1 within 10 days of being established, naming a treasurer who is personally responsible for the accuracy of every filing.14eCFR. 11 CFR Part 102 – Registration, Organization, and Recordkeeping by Political Committees Both file ongoing financial reports on Form 3X detailing all money in and out.15Federal Election Commission. Report of Receipts and Disbursements for Other Than an Authorized Committee (FEC Form 3X) Instructions For any donor who gives more than $200 in a calendar year, the report lists the person’s full name, mailing address, occupation, and employer, and the FEC publishes it online. Late or missing reports trigger mandatory civil penalties under the Administrative Fines Program.16Federal Election Commission. Administrative Fines

There’s a gap, though, and it primarily affects Super PACs. A 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit can accept unlimited donations and generally isn’t required to publicly disclose its donors. When such a nonprofit gives to a Super PAC, the Super PAC’s report shows the nonprofit as the contributor, not the individuals who funded it. This routing is what’s commonly called “dark money.” The Super PAC’s spending is still public; the original source of the funds may never appear in any filing.