19a

(1) The President of the German Bundestag shall fix the volume of state funds each eligible party is entitled to for the previous year (year of entitlement) by 15 February each year. He may only fix and disburse state funds for a party pursuant to Articles 18 and 19a on the basis of a statement of account that corresponds to the provisions in Section V. If, before fixing the volume of state funds, the President of the German Bundestag institutes proceedings pursuant to Article 23a (2) with regard to a statement of account that has been submitted in due time, he shall only provisionally fix the state funds for this party on the basis of its statement of account and shall disburse these funds against a security deposit equivalent to the probable financial obligations of the party (Articles 31a to 31c) He will definitely fix the volume of state funds after the conclusion of the procedure.
(2) The basis for fixing the volume of state funds is the number of valid votes obtained by the eligible parties by 31 December of the year of entitlement in the latest European, Bundestag or Landtag elections and the bestowals published in the statements of account (Article 18 (3), sentence 1, no. 3) for the previous year (accounting year). The President of the German Bundestag shall record the valid votes for each party qualified for consideration under Article 18 (4) in a vote account and keep it up to date.
(3) The party shall submit its statement of account to the President of the German Bundestag by 30 September of the year following the accounting year. The President of the German Bundestag can extend this deadline by up to three months. If a party does not submit its statement of account on time, it shall once and for all forfeit its entitlement to state funds linked to bestowals (forfeiture of bestowal share). If a party has not submitted its statement of account by 31 December of the year following the year of entitlement, it will once and for all forfeit its entitlement to state funds for the year of entitlement (forfeiture of the electoral vote share). The deadline will be met regardless of the correctness of the content if the statement complies with the form specified in Article 24 and the auditor's certificate is attached pursuant to Article 30 (2). The amounts fixed and disbursed to the other parties shall remain unaffected.
(4) The calculation of the relative upper limit (Article 18 (5)) shall be based on the income published in the statements of account for the accounting year pursuant to Article 24 (4), nos. 1 to 7.
(5) During the fixing procedure, first the absolute limit (Article 18 (2)) must be observed and then the relative limit for each party (Article 18 (5)). If the total sum of state funds calculated exceeds the absolute limit, the parties shall only be entitled to a volume of state funds equal to their proportion of that sum.
(6) The state funds for the valid votes obtained in Land elections shall be disbursed to the party's Land branch at the rate of 0.50 euro per vote; any reductions made under Paragraph 5 shall not be taken into consideration if they can be made within the scope of the disbursements that have to be made by the Federation (Article 21 (1), sentence 1, alternative 2). The remaining state funds shall be disbursed to the party's national branch or, if the party
is only represented at Land level, to the Land branch.