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(1) Parties are entitled to accept donations. Donations can be given in cash up to the amount of 1,000 euros. Party members who receive donations for a party shall immediately forward them to an executive committee member who in accordance with the statutes is responsible for financial affairs. Donations to a party shall be considered obtained when they reach the area of disposal of an executive committee member responsible for financial affairs or of a full-time staff member of the party; donations that are forwarded back to the donor immediately after receipt shall not be deemed as having reached the party.
(2) Parties are not allowed to accept the following donations:
1. Donations from public corporations, parliamentary factions and groups as well as factions and groups of municipal agencies;
2. Donations from political foundations, incorporated bodies, associations of individuals and funds which, under the statutes, the foundation charter or other rules and regulations and by virtue of the actual business, are intended exclusively and directly for non-profitmaking, charitable or church purposes (Articles 51 to 68 of the Tax Code).
3. Donations from outside the area of application of this Law unless a) these donations accrue to a party directly from the assets of a German citizen as defined by the Basic Law, a citizen of the European Union or a business enterprise more than 50 per cent of whose shares are owned by Germans as defined by the Basic Law or by a citizen of the European Union or whose principal residence is located in a member state of the European Union;
b) they are donations to parties of national minorities in their ancestral country which are granted to them from states bordering on the Federal Republic of Germany and in which members of their ethnic community live, or
c) they are donations of no more than 1,000 euros from an alien.
4. Donations from professional associations which were bestowed on them with the proviso that they be forwarded to a political party.
5. Donations from enterprises that are fully or partly under state ownership or are administrated or managed publicly if the state has more than a 25 per cent holding.
6. Donations which exceed 500 euros and whose donors cannot be determined, or donations from an anonymous third party which have evidently been forwarded.
7. Donations that are clearly made to the party in the expectation of or in return for a specific economic or political advantage.
8. Donations solicited by a third party against a payment from the party if the payment exceeds 25 per cent of the value of the solicited donation.
(3) Donations and deputy fees in excess of a total of 10,000 euros given to a party or to one or more of its regional branches in a calendar year (accounting year) must be recorded in the statement of account, together with the names and addresses of the donors and the total amount of the donations. Single donations in excess of 50,000 euros shall be reported to the President of the German Bundestag immediately. He shall publish the donation as a Bundestag printed paper as soon as possible, stating the name of the donor.
(4) The party shall immediately forward inadmissible donations as defined in Paragraph 2 to the President of the German Bundestag, or at the latest together with the submission of the statement of account for the respective year (Article 19a (3)).