Clergy

When you manage a nonprofit, spending money is always an issue. After all, your company is funded by grants and donations, many of which have strings attached. It's your obligation to keep the organization lean and the overhead low. However, the bigger an organization gets,...

17 November, 2021

While ministers are employees for federal income tax reporting purposes, they are self-employed for Social Security purposes with respect to services they perform in the exercise of their ministry. This means that they must pay both the employee and the employer share of social security tax...

10 November, 2021

2022 is almost here! December is a great time of year to update your housing allowance for the following year. Here are five quick facts about designating a housing allowance: The housing allowance designation can only be made for the future, not retroactively. This is...

03 November, 2021

A Clergy Staff Member is a person who has been granted ecclesiastical authority by an association, denomination, or state through the rite of ordination, commissioning, or licensing. Generally, an ordained minister has a Master of Divinity from an accredited theological school and is recognized through...

27 October, 2021

The short answer to this question is yes.  Unlike non-clergy employees, clergy do not have Social Security or Medicare taxes taken out of their paycheck. The Church also does not pay any matching portion to IRS, so the Minister has to pay both halves, the...

20 October, 2021

How does a church go about determining the amounts it should pay its ministers and other employees? Church boards, or those to whom they delegate, must determine what amounts to pay each staff position. The experience and competence of those making the decisions vary greatly...

13 October, 2021

An internship is an opportunity that can lead to a full-time job. College students may receive class credits for internships. You might want to use internship programs to scout new talent and get temporary help without committing to permanent new hires. But don't use interns as...

06 October, 2021

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...

29 September, 2021

If you’ve ever experienced payroll errors first-hand, you know the extensive costs and time-consuming efforts that go into correcting them. Even the smallest of payroll slip-ups can snowball into serious, long-term issues and increased expenses, especially if those mistakes continually occur. But when mistakes happen,...

22 September, 2021

I'm a Clergy Staff Member. Is My Social Security Allowance Taxable?   The short answer to this question is yes. Unlike non-clergy employees, clergy do not have Social Security or Medicare taxes taken out of their paycheck. The Church also does not pay any matching portion to IRS,...

15 September, 2021