Compensation planning for clergy and other church staff presents several unique tax issues that aren’t well understood by many church leaders and their advisers. Here are three quick key considerations when structuring compensation plans: 1.) Salary. The most basic component of church staff compensation is salary. There are two important considerations to keep in mind […]
Read More >By David Middlebrook Deciding whether an individual worker is an employee or independent contractor is an increasingly important decision and deserves every church and ministry’s full attention. It is often tempting for churches and ministries to classify workers as independent contractors so as to avoid paying employment and payroll taxes and providing employee benefits and […]
Read More >The extensive use of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, streaming sermon videos, podcasts and blogging, has placed many churches into a public arena with potential legal and public relations consequences.
Read More >Churches are automatically considered tax-exempt organizations by the Internal Revenue Code,
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From the founding of our country until 1953, churches and their ministers enjoyed complete freedom to address social, moral, Biblical and political issues. Churches have enjoyed exemptions from federal income tax in every income tax law enacted since 1861 without any restrictions on the political activities of the church. But in 1954 all that changed. As part of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson added a new condition to the tax exemption for all nonprofit organizations: no political activity. This amendment to the Code prohibited all nonprofits from doing anything that would support or hinder a candidate for elective office. (For purposes of this article, I will use the prior sentence as the definition of “political activity.”) This amendment was added at the last minute without any discussion or hearings.
Read More >There is a blockbuster religious freedom case that is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. Courts have generally believed that federal employment discrimination statutes do not apply to church employees performing religious functions.
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