Category: Finances
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2 Housing Allowance Tips
As you plan for life and ministry in the coming year, use these 2 housing allowance tips to save the most on your taxes: #1 Create a Good System You need to have receipts to prove your expenses come tax time. Hopefully the IRS will never ask for them (yeah, that would be an audit),…
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Avoid this Pastoral Housing Allowance Penalty
The pastoral housing allowance can be a great tax deduction for pastors. But if you don’t prepare for the surprise swap up on your taxes, you may end up paying a housing allowance penalty. I have seen church planters fall prey to this and wind up with a huge tax bill come April. To be…
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Free Housing Allowance Calculator
Setting a Pastoral Housing Allowance continues to be one of the more confusing things to figure out for church planters. Below is a Free Housing Allowance Calculator that should help. First, some important things you need to keep in mind: The Rules You have to be an ordained, licensed or commissioned pastor You have to…
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Opting Out of Social Security
The IRS allows for ministers opting out of social security if they have a conscientious objection to it on religious grounds. There are strong opinions out there about whether or not ministers should opt out or stay in. The Case for Staying In Staying in keeps you enrolled in social security benefits: retirement income health…
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2 Hidden Costs of Hiring Church Plant Staff
Most of the church planters I’ve supported didn’t come into the adventure with any direct experience with the costs of hiring church plant staff. Either they came from a ministry position that didn’t manage other employees, or they worked for a megachurch that had an HR department that took care everything. But when you’re the…
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How to Prepare Church Giving Statements
Often at this time of year I field questions about whether churches have to file annual donation statements. Here is what you need to know about how to prepare church giving statements. First off, your church doesn’t have to file any statements or records with the IRS. The church giving statements are mailed to the…
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Obamacare for Church Plants
When the latest phase-in of Obamacare rolled out last summer [2015], I discovered that church plants could no longer have employees each get their own family plan and then get reimbursed by the church. [UPDATE 2018: a new law allows churches to reimburse once again] So church plants were left with 2 options: offer no…
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How to Do a Church Plant Name Change
Sometimes you just can’t get around a church plant name change. Here’s what you need to do. There are a couple of things that might be forcing the name change: You incorporated early with a placeholder name and now you’ve settled on the permanent name You incorporated early with a name that is a complete…
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3 Keys to Handling Church Donor Info
Part 4 in a 4-part series on How to Count Church Offerings In America today, the information that comes through the church offering plate needs to be safeguarded as much as the money itself. Here are 3 keys to handling church donor info: Keep it Organized At the end of the year, your tax-savvy donors…