Clergy

When Steve Dawson first started working with churches more than two decades ago, much of the accounting work was still being done by hand. Churches were just starting to use computers for spreadsheets and bookkeeping software. Not everyone was convinced that was a good idea, said...

18 April, 2019

Ministers who pay off their mortgages may have a housing allowance for other eligible expenses of maintaining a home, such as utilities, taxes and repairs. With no mortgage payment, their expenses are likely to be much lower. Some ministers mistakenly think that they can exclude the...

04 April, 2019

Episcopal News Service - In the latest installment in a nearly decade-long effort to have the Internal Revenue Service’s clergy parsonage exemption declared unconstitutional, the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled just the opposite. A three-judge panel said March 15 that the principal effect of the...

21 March, 2019

When the United States began, most pastors lived in church-owned parsonages, and the US carried over the common European practice of not taxing that as income. The basis of the housing exclusion from taxable income is deeply rooted in our nation’s tax history. In 1954, the...

07 March, 2019

Determining the correct social security tax for clergy is often confusing. Clergy pay social security tax under the Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA), not under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Clergy engaged in the exercise of ministry are always treated as self-employed for social security tax purposes. A congregation should...

28 February, 2019

As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that went into effect in January 2018, there is a new “parking tax” that applies to nonprofit organizations, including churches. The new regulation creates unrelated business income tax on qualified transportation fringe benefits, including employer-provided parking. Accordingly,...

21 February, 2019