Standard Licensing

ITAR Part §130 Requirements

4.13

  Section Part §130 of the ITAR requires that reporting on certain political contributions, fees or commissions be made to the Department of State. This requirement includes payments you or your vendors, suppliers, or consultants may have made to foreign parties.

The reporting requirements are based on dollar value. Political Contributions totaling more than $5,000.00 dollars or more must be reported — this is an aggregated number — which means if your organization makes five payments of $1,000.00 a piece — the final payment will trigger the requirement to report this to the Department of State. You and your vendors, suppliers, consultants, or independent contractors cannot split up payments to avoid making this report. Any fees or commissions your organization pays in aggregate amounts of $100,000.00 must be reported as well.

It is important for an organization to check with parties they do business with to determine if there is a requirement on any of the parties' part to make a report — and if your business partner chooses not to report — you still must make a report that you know about a payment or contribution that triggered reporting.

Also be aware that payments to individuals that are consultants, or paying finder's fees or other considerations are considered reportable if the values meet the threshold — you must keep very good records on payments made, to whom and when. If your organization has a requirement to make a report, it is a simple process and your compliance professional can assist in submitting it. Each TAA and DSP-5 (or other licensing authorization) reminds the signer to ask this question prior to approving the application — so a failure to check into this fact could be considered an omission of material fact and, therefore, a violation.