MinistryCPA - Corey A. Pfaffe, CPA, LLC

Another timely question from a WI pastor: " What will the 2008 standard mileage rate be? " Here’s the answer I received from my Wisconsin Institute of CPA membership sources… Effective Jan. 1, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (including vans, pickups, or panel trucks) will be: 50.5 cents per mile for business miles driven; 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes; and 14 cents per mile drive in serves to a charitable organization (IR 2007-192; Rev Proc 2007-70, 2007-50 IRB). The new rate for business miles is up two cents from 48.5 cents per mile in 2007. The new rate for miles driven for medical or moving purposes is one cent less than in 2007 when the rate was 20 cents per mile. The charitable mileage rate remains unchanged from 2007. The standard mileage rates for business, medical, and moving purposes are based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. The charitable mileage rate is set by law. An em...

I received a great question today from a pastor in IL – “ Do our phone expenses fall under housing allowance or professional expense reimbursement? ” Pastors deduct ministry calls as professional expenses or use them to substantiate their church or ministry expense allowances. This includes all long distance calls for ministry and even local calls on a dedicated phone line. (You need at least one phone that you can call “personal.”) All the rest of a pastors personal phone costs can be used to substantiate his housing allowance as non-taxable income received from his ministry.