Germany - 2004 Party Law

Title Article 18 Principles and Volume of State Funding
Section IV State Funding
Article

18

(1) The parties shall receive funds as a contribution towards the funding of the duties generally incumbent upon them under the Basic Law. The allocation of state funds shall depend on the success a party achieves with the voters in European, Bundestag and Landtag elections, on the sum of its membership and deputy fees and on the amount of money it obtains from donations.
(2) The maximum total volume of state funds which may be paid to all parties each year shall be 133 million euros  (absolute upper limit).
(3) Under the state partial funding program, the parties shall each year receive:
1. 0.70 euro for each valid vote cast for its list or
2. 0.70 euro for each valid vote cast for a party in a constituency or polling district whose list was not approved in a Land, and
3. 0.38 euro for each euro which it has obtained as bestowals (membership fee, deputy fee or rightfully obtained donation); in this context, only bestowals up to 3,300 euros per natural person shall be taken into account.
Notwithstanding Numbers 1 and 2 above, the parties shall receive 0.85 euro for every vote they obtain up to four million valid votes.
(4) Parties which, according to the final election result, have obtained at least 0.5 percent of the valid votes cast for lists at the latest European or Bundestag elections or 1 percent in a Landtag election shall be entitled to state funds in accordance with Paragraph 3, nos. 1 and 3; in order to qualify for payments under Paragraph 3, sentence 1, no. 1 and sentence 2, the party must meet these requirements in the election concerned. Parties which, according to the final election result, have obtained 10 percent of the valid votes cast in a constituency or polling district shall be entitled to state funds under Paragraph 3, no. 2. Sentences 1 and 2 shall not apply to parties of national minorities.
(5) The amount of state funds must not exceed the annual income gained by a party under Article 24 (4), nos. 1 to 7 (relative upper limit). The sum of the funds made available to all parties must not exceed the absolute upper limit.
(6) Upon publication of the statements of account by the President of the German Bundestag of the parties represented in the German Bundestag, the Bundestag shall, in accordance with Article 23 (2), sentence 3, decide on the adaptation of the amount of the absolute upper limit (Article 18 (2)). To this effect, the President of the Federal Statistical Office shall
submit a report to the German Bundestag by 30 April of each year concerning the development of the price index of expenditures typical for a party with respect to the previous year. With a weighting factor of 70 percent, this price index shall be based on the general consumer price index, and with 30 percent, on the index of the agreed monthly salaries of employees of central, regional and local authorities.
(7) The Federal President may appoint an independent expert commission on questions of political party funding.
(8) If a party is dissolved or banned, it shall lose its eligibility for support under the state partial funding program from the date of its dissolution.

Categories - External oversight (Sanctions)
- External oversight (Subject of monitoring)
- External oversight (Type of authority)
- Extra-parliamentary party (Cease of existence)
- Party finance (Direct public funding)
Source http://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/en/parteien/downloads/parteiengesetz_engl.pdf