Skip to main content

Love Offering as Disguised Compensation

Question:

As a member of my church's audit team, I have been told many times by the financial secretary that our church takes a love offering for persons serving our church. The love offering is not counted; it is just given to the person. For this reason, no record is maintained for issuing Form 1099s. Is this  procedure in compliance with IRS rules for issuing Form 1099s when payments are $600 or more in a calendar year?

Answer:

First, the offerings should be accounted for because it appears that the collections are received and distributed as compensation for work that is done for the church. When independent contractors receive more than $600 in a tax year, they must be issued a Form-1099 MISC. Of course, this will require that the offerings be counted and that information be collected from the recipient in order to facilitate filing the proper forms (typically, Form W-9 is used for this purpose).

Second, if these individuals are working for the church, they may very well be employees of the church and not independent contractors. As employees of the church, they should be receiving Form W-2's, and the church should be paying the employer's half of payroll taxes (in the case of non-ministerial employees). The church may also find it necessary to "gross up" the amount distributed in order to properly reflect the employee share of FICA taxes. For example, a $300 cash compensation amount represents a net check for gross pay of $324.85, with $24.85 of FICA tax withholding.


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

Review: Form 1099 Payments to 501(c)(3) Organizations

Question: A church rented space from another church last year. Should it request a completed Form W-9 and issue Form 1099-MISC? Answer: Payments from one 501(c)(3) organization to another 501(c)(3) organization are not subject to Form 1099-MISC reporting. The IRS Instructions for Form 1099-MISC state that "payments to a tax-exempt organization" are exempt from reporting a Form 1099-MISC.  The following are typical examples of payments of $600 or more by a church which are subject to reporting a Form 1099-MISC: Rent paid to an individual (non-corporation) Payments for services rendered by individuals who are not employees (e.g. janitorial service, facilities, snow removal, guest speakers) Support sent directly to missionaries

Form 944 or 941 Filing for Churches

Question:   A new church filed for an employer identification number (EIN) recently. It received notification from the IRS about the EIN, stating that the church must file Form 944 by the following January deadline. The church has no non-ministerial staff members. Since income tax withholding is elective by ministers and none of the pastors has elected to request non-mandatory withholding is the church required to file Form 944 annually? Also, a quarterly Form 941 (rather than an annual Form 944) is required of some employers. Which IRS form, if any, should be filed? Answer: According to IRS Section 1402(c) and 3121(c), ministers are not subject to mandatory income tax withholding. Unless one or more ministerial employees request non-mandatory withholding, church employers with only ministerial employees do not need to file Form 941 or Form 944.  The IRS  Ministers Audit Technique Guide  explains in further detail a minister's treatments for social security, Medicare tax, Fed