Clergy Tag

Can I as a Clergy Staff Member Claim the Housing Allowance on Two Homes?

Even if you own two homes, you can only use housing expenses of one home for the housing allowance. A federal appeals court in 2012 ruled that only housing expenses for your principal residence can be used for your housing allowance, even if you are...

06 February, 2020

Can Clergy Use Home Equity Loans to Qualify for the Housing Allowance?

If you managed to pay off your home mortgage this year, congratulations! However, you may notice that you have a lot fewer expenses to claim for your housing allowance at the end of the year. With less housing expenses, you also have less income exempt...

30 January, 2020

Paying Estimated Taxes: 3 Tips for Clergy Staff Members

If you’re a minister, you must pre-pay a substantial portion of the taxes you’ll owe for that year in estimated quarterly payments to avoid penalties. Tip # 1: Make your payment on time The US has a pay-as-you-go tax system, meaning the IRS expects you to make...

23 January, 2020

Top Three Reasons for Church Ministers to Save With a 403(b) Retirement Plan

Reason 1: Income Tax Deduction Contributions to your 403(b) account are tax deductible for federal income and social security taxes. Putting money into the 403(b) reduces your taxable income for that year. For example, if you put $5,000 into your 403(b) account and your federal income...

16 January, 2020

Parking Lot Tax to Churches Officially Repealed

One controversial provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, you may recall, required nonprofit organizations, including churches, to calculate unrelated business income tax on qualified transportation fringe benefits provided to employees. Among the benefits included were employer-provided parking and mass transit passes, as...

09 January, 2020

Church and Nonprofit Parking Tax Repeal Possible

On December 16, 2019, U.S. lawmakers struck a tax-policy deal. As part of the package, lawmakers agreed to repeal a part of the 2017 Tax Reform law that charged churches and nonprofits taxes for offering parking to their employees. It appears that if the nonprofit parking...

26 December, 2019

IRS: Recent Legislation Requires Tax Exempt Organizations to e-File Forms

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service said recently that the Taxpayer First Act, enacted July 1, requires tax exempt organizations to electronically file information returns and related forms. The new law affects tax exempt organizations in tax years beginning after July 1, 2019. The following IRS...

19 December, 2019

Calculating Self Employment Taxes for Clergy Staff

The Self-Employment Taxes that most members of the Clergy must pay quarterly are actually made up of two different taxes: Old-age, survivors and disability insurance (also known as “OASDI” or the more commonly used term “Social Security”) Medicare taxes OASDI taxes are calculated as 12.4% of...

12 December, 2019

Self Employment Taxes and How They Relate to Ministers

If you are new to Ministry, it’s possible that you’ve never heard of self-employment taxes before, much less paid them. One common mistake for new Ministers is filing the 1040 without taking self-employment taxes into account, which can result in a big bill later when...

05 December, 2019

What is the Minister’s Housing Allowance?

The minister’s housing allowance is a very important tax benefit available to ministers. Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code allows Ministers for Tax Purposes to exclude some or all of their ministerial income designated by their church or church-related employer as a housing allowance...

28 November, 2019