Health Care Penalty Removed, but Premium Tax Credit Still in Play
Before 2019, individuals were required to enroll in qualifying health insurance or they would receive a tax penalty. This was called “minimum essential coverage”. You may remember receiving a 1095 form showing all the months that you had coverage. If you didn’t have insurance or you had an insurance gap, you also might have received…
How does an inheritance get taxed?
If you recently received an inheritance, you may be wondering if you have any tax obligations. Fortunately, except for very large estates, most people will never have to pay any sort of tax on their inheritance. Estate tax is calculated based on the value of the deceased’s assets at time of death. This is usually…
Getting a Second Opinion on Clergy Taxes
Clergy taxes are an extremely narrow niche of tax law, so many generalist tax companies and software packages are not familiar with the rules. On top of this, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act drastically changed the way that members of the Clergy can claim expenses. If you didn’t file with Clergy Financial Resources, it’s…
Homeowners Exclusion Can Reduce Tax on Home Sale
Are you selling a personal residence in 2019? If you lived in the home for two out of the five years before the sale date, there may be some good news for you. Under current tax laws, IRS allows for individuals to exclude up to $250,000 of income from the sale of a personal residence….
Understanding Clergy W-2 Forms
In many smaller churches, the person in charge of preparing payroll or preparing W-2 forms is not always a payroll expert. They may not understand the complexities of clergy tax law or how compensation should be reported on the form. To help, Clergy Financial Resources has prepared a sample Clergy W-2 for reference, which you…
The Decision: Clergy or Non-Clergy
When a church hires an employee, one of the initial decisions that must be made is whether to treat the worker as clergy, non-clergy employee or contractor. This decision may seem insignificant, but it has huge implications when it comes to payroll. Ministers have what is commonly referred to as “dual tax status.” For federal…
Tax Advisor
Welcome to the CFR Family, Andrew. Clergy Financial Resources is excited to announce the addition of a new staff member to our team, Andrew Drazkowski, just in time for the 2019 Tax Season. We’ve hired Andrew as a payroll and tax advisor. His main responsibilities as we head through this season will be completing 1040…
2018 Webinar for Clergy W-2 Forms
Filing clergy returns can be an intimidating and even confusing process to the uninitiated. Practitioners and bookkeepers unfamiliar with clergy tax law will quickly find that Clergy W-2 forms differ slightly from regular W-2 forms. Often Social Security and Medicare withholding will get reported by mistake when they should not. Sometimes housing allowance or parsonages…
Clergy Housing Lands in Seventh Circuit
Churches and the IRS joined forces Wednesday before a sympathetic Seventh Circuit panel to argue that a 65-year-old income tax housing exemption for clergy members does not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. “The court has to take history into account,” said attorney Luke Goodrich of the nonprofit law firm Becket, a public-interest firm representing…
Housing Allowance for Clergy Couples
Clergy couples are limited to the equivalent of one housing allowance between the two incomes, providing they live in the same location. In this instance, clergy need to be mindful of the amount requested by each spouse in the annual housing allowance resolution. Generally, any expense to provide or maintain the home can be used to justify…