All Tax Preparers Are Not Created Equal For Clergy Returns It is not unusual for a minister to rely solely on a general tax professional who may or may not specialize in church and clergy tax matters. It is not enough anymore to just ask if the tax preparer does ministers’ taxes, but ask the tax…
With the exception of wages and salaries, employee benefits are the primary tools by which churches attract and retain qualified personnel. Most churches voluntarily provide a variety of benefit packages or benefit dollars. Reasons for providing such benefits range from a desire to be competitive in the relevant labor market to a genuine concern for their…
Job descriptions are essential in the church hiring process. After all, they are the first thing potential applicants see about your church. Job descriptions can say a lot about your church, and they ensure that applicants and future employees fully understand what the job is about, what their role involves, and what they will be…
There is no single test for determining if an individual is an independent contractor or an employee. Employee misclassification has always been an important issue and often can trigger IRS attention. Generally, an employee has an ongoing relationship with the church which includes a job description and compensation paid by the hour or salary. A…
The IRS requires that you have adequate records backing up your mileage deduction. If you’re audited, the IRS examiner will ask to see your records or log. If you don’t have exact, reliable records, the IRS will ordinarily disallow your entire mileage deduction. This is true even if it’s clear that you did in fact drive…
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act and similar state wage-hour laws require churches to maintain accurate timekeeping records and to pay nonexempt employees for all hours worked in a workweek and to pay overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week. Some states also impose daily overtime requirements. To pay employees…
It is fairly simple to calculate how much overtime a nonexempt employee is owed when the employee is paid an hourly wage. But calculating overtime becomes a bit more difficult when the employee is paid on a salary basis. The methods for calculating overtime vary depending on whether the employee’s salary is intended to cover…
Two-thirds of students graduating college in 2016 are carrying student loan debt, averaging close to $30,000 and typically carrying interest at 6.8 percent, or a little over $2,000 per year. If you are paying more than $2,500 per year in student loan interest, the excess is not deductible and cannot be carried forward. Also, if you…
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)’s overtime laws require churches to pay employees overtime when they work beyond a certain threshold, usually 40 hours in a workweek. For most churches, the workweek coincides with the calendar week, running from 12 a.m. Monday to 12 p.m. on Sunday. But churches are allowed to use any fixed…
The FLSA requires covered employers to pay “non-exempt” employees at least the minimum wage for each hour worked as well as overtime pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. Federal_FLSA_Exemption Guide If your exempt employees earn less than the new salary requirement, they will no longer meet exemption criteria and…
