Skip to main content

Unspent Professional Reimbursement Plan Advances

Question:

A pastor writes, "Every year I break my package down how I want (base salary, housing, and a professional reimbursement). Can I carry over my excess unspent professional reimbursement or excess expenses into the following year?

Answer:

IRS Publication 15 spells out the rules for accountable plans--required conditions for employees to receive non-taxable employer advances for business expenses:

"To be an accountable plan, your reimbursement or allowance arrangement must require your employees to meet all three of the following rules.

1. "They must have paid or incurred deductible expenses while performing services as your employees. The reimbursement or advance must be paid for the expense and must not be an amount that would have otherwise been paid by the employee.

2. "They must substantiate these expenses to you within a reasonable period of time.

3. "They must return any amounts in excess of substantiated expenses within a reasonable period of time."

Publication 15 goes on, "Amounts paid under an accountable plan are not wages and are not subject to the withholding and payment of income ... taxes.

"If the expenses covered by this arrangement are not substantiated (or amounts in excess of substantiated expenses are not returned within a reasonable period of time), the amount paid under the arrangement in excess of the substantiated expenses is treated as paid under a nonaccountable plan. This amount is subject to the withholding and payment of income ... taxes for the first payroll period following the end of the reasonable period of time.

"A reasonable period of time depends on the facts and circumstances. Generally, it is considered reasonable if your employees receive their advance within 30 days of the time that they incur the expenses, adequately account for the expenses within 60 days after the expenses were paid or incurred, and return any amounts in excess of expenses within 120 days after the expenses were paid or incurred. Also, it is considered reasonable if you give your employees a periodic statement (at least quarterly) that asks them to either return or adequately account for outstanding amounts and they do so within 120 days."

APPLICATION TO MINISTERS AND CHURCHES: Can expenses or reimbursements be carried over from one year to the next? Well, I suppose they can. For example, at each month-end a church advances its pastor $100 for his professional expenses ($1,200 per year). The pastor uses this money in January, documents it to the church in February, and returns any excess advance in April. This seems to meet the requirements.

The PROBLEM with the question posed above relates to who is funding the professional expense reimbursement plan. These plans are designed (and permitted by the Internal Revenue Code) to use an employer's funds to reimburse employees for their job expenses. When an employee manipulates his own pay (with the cooperation of his employer) on an annual basis to gain tax-free treatment of the reimbursements, then the types of scenarios address here can arise. After all, it's the minister's money that may need to be returned to the church when this was certainly never the intent. Professional expense reimbursement plans do not work like 403(b) plans with annual elective deferrals or cafeteria plans with employee elections.

My SUGGESTION: When a minister first begins employment with the local church, the initial compensation package may allocate an appropriate portion to the church's budget for professional expenses. The minister and congregation will want to estimate on the low side since excess funds must remain with the church (or be reimbursed back to it). In subsequent years, the church should first increase this budget to more closely align with the minister's actual expenses. After this budget is set, it may consider any raise in taxable compensation or other employee benefits. This process removes the very awkward situation described above.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rental of a Church Parsonage to a Non-Minister

Question: A church owns a parsonage, but the pastor does not use it as he owns his own home. The church rents the parsonage to a tenant other than a minister or employee of the church. Will the church be responsible for paying income tax on these monies as Unrelated Business Income (filing a Form 990-T) even if the money is used to carry on the business of the church? Answer: Whether the money is used for church purposes is irrelevant.  IRS Publication 598  states: "If an exempt organization regularly carries on a trade or business not substantially related to its exempt purpose, except that it provides funds to carry out that purpose, the organization is subject to tax on its income from that unrelated trade or business." Fortunately, in the case of rental income from real property, such income is "excluded in computing unrelated business taxable income" (Publication 598). Caution: see content below regarding debt-financed property.  However, a second concern not a...

How can my ministry expenses be covered by the church?

     How can my ministry expenses be covered?                            Many ministers use their personal autos for ministry purposes. Their employers can reimburse these costs using a standard mileage rate published by the IRS. The per mile rate represents employees’ entire reimbursable cost other than highway tolls and parking tabs. If not covered by use of the ministries’ credit card, other costs can be reimbursed as well—business and travel meals, lodging, office supplies, and professional library purchases among them. Some ministries reimburse travel costs using per-diems published by the IRS. If employee business expenses are not reimbursed, the personal tax deduction benefit to the individual minister is severely limited. Non-taxable reimbursements after documentation is provided to the employer follows IRS rules for accountable plans. Non-taxable cash advances before expenses are in...

What is the best retirement account for a Minister?

       What are my options for retirement savings?                  Regardless of options, start now! You probably have learned about traditional and Roth IRAs. We have often found them well short of the benefits we will share here regarding Internal Revenue Code section 403(b) plans. These plans must be established by your employer (although you might need to be the initiator). They are funded in two ways—withholding from your paycheck at your option (called “elective deferrals”) and as initiated by the employer (matching or non-elective contributions). These contributions not only save income tax, but they also reduce the income you must report as subject to the 15.3% SECA tax. Further, at retirement with the cooperation of your church or Christian ministry the distributions to you can be tax-free to the extent of your qualified housing expenses. Many ministries also adopt what are often called “FICA alternative” be...