The following comments, tips, and Q/A were provided by FreeChurchAccounting’s generous readers:
Pastor housing stipend reporting
We are a small church and pay our pastor a housing stipend monthly. We’ve been taxing this payment. How do we report on the W2?
W2’s and filling out all income
We are trying to help our church with their finances.
The church is giving a cash allowance for medical and retirement $3000 per month.
On the past …
Pastor in church provided parsonage
The pastor lives in a church provided parsonage. The church pays for the utilities (not transferred to the pastor’s name).
Let’s say the pastor is paid …
Correct way to reimburse pastor
Our pastor is paid 43,000 a year base pay.
Each month he has our secretary withhold 1,000 which he then turns in business receipts for and gets a check …
Pastor’s Utilities Paid by Church
In a situation where our pastor has an agreed upon housing allowance, but the church also has a budget line where we pay his utilities. Should the utilities …
Interim Pastor – Statutory Employee?
My father is an interim pastor for his church and received a W-2 amounts in Box 1 “Wages” and Box 2 “FIT Withheld”.
Box 13 was also checked for statutory …
pastor and his wife working together
If a pastor and his wife work together can their salaries be combined and filed together on the pastors w2?
Vickey’s Reply : No. In no shape or form …
State Employer Identification Number
I am a new treasurer for our church which also has a new pastor. Our church has never given a W2 before. I have a federal tax Id number but not a state …
Need a official W-2 and W-3
How do I obtain a W-2 and W-3 to complete for my pastor? I have signed up thru the IRS several times but it will not let me download the forms. Tired …
Clergy retirement plan
The company pays for our Pastor’s retirement plan, do I check the retirement box or leave blank?
W3 reporting form for Pastors W2
if a pastor opts out of FICA, what does the church check on “kind of filer” on the W3. The church doesn’t file a 941 or 944 report because there is nothing …
Reporting a Housing Allowance Only
We are a very small church, 20 in attendance on a Sunday, we only give our pastor a small housing allowance. Does a W2 need to be done for this? If so …
employers contribution to 403b
I am preparing W-2s for the pastors in QuickBooks and it is NOT including the Employers 403B contribution in box 12 on the W-2. Is this correct? It is …
How to do W-2
If a pastor of a small church had a housing allowance only for pay (and it was the smallest of housing expenses actually pd, housing allowance designated …
Expenses
Can I deduct Expenses on a Sch C for SE even if I a paid on a W2?
Pastor Filing 1099
This is our first year that our Pastor has received an occasional stipend from our church.
How do we go about reporting this #1 for our Pastor and …
w2 box 1 troubles
I am using the social security on line site to file the w2’s for our pastors who receive $24000 and $20,000 annual compensation which is all designated …
First Time Pastor
Would I proceed the way that your example states even if I didn’t pay any income taxes?
Wasn’t aware of how the process went, nor did anyone at the …
Run paycheck thru payables vs payroll?
If one of our pastors does not want me with withhold their Fed Tax, should I run their check thru normal payables or should I still do it thru quickbooks …
What happened to the $9,000
Using the example – I believe you are saying the “cash” amount received for the year is $25,000.
What happened to the $9,000? It isn’t subtracted …
Form 941 and What is Reported on W-2
Our church reports income tax on Pastor’s Gross Salary quarterly on the 941.
When the W-2 is completed, $0 is entered for Box 2, Federal Income Tax. …
W-2 Reporting
How to report on the W-2 employee paid 403b and Health insurance payments deducted from employees salary?
Box 14
Is the proper wording for Box 14 “Housing” or can “Parsonage” be used as well?
Vickey’s Reply: Box 14 is an “informational” box for the employee (The …
Example Pastor’s W-2
Why isn’t the HA(6000) subtracted from salary when calculating the amount for Box 1?
It’s indicated elsewhere that it should be.
Vickey’s reply: The …
TSA contributions
Where would i put the TSA (Tax Sheltered Annuity) contributions on my W2 form? Would it be included in the Box 14 area?
Retirement fund 403 B for pastors
When a withdrawal is made from a 403 B retirement fund for housing allowance, how is it reported by the Finance Company on the pastor’s w2?
How does …
Correct information for Pastor W-2
Example: Our pastor and his spouse receive a salaries, housing, two vehicles with insurance, hospitalization insurance, dental insurance, contributions …
Is a W-2 necessary?
My church only pays me a housing allowance (no regular wage/income). Getting a W2 that has $0 for wages messes up my ability to electronically file. …
Minister’s Severance Pay on W-2
I was a minister of a small local church.
The church closed its doors and gave me 6-months severance pay.
On my W-2, they did NOT include the amount …
Utilities Allowance for Pastor
Our pastor receives a housing allowance and a utilities allowance. Should the utilities allowance also be included in box 14 of the W-2?
Vickey’s Reply: …
Allocating Housing Allowance
Our pastor passed away the first week of May 2016. He was projected to have an $18000 housing allowance that we would have deducted from his gross salary. …
Form W-3
If the ordained minister is the only church employee, are churches required to file for W-3 with the Social Security Administration?
Clergy witholding
I receive clergy pastor pay $7,800 and a second job at the church that is non clergy at $7,400. I also receive 16,000 clergy housing allowance. IRS sent …
FSA and retirement withholdings
Where would Pastor directed deductions for a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)and voluntary contributions to their 401K go on the W-2 form?
thank you …
Retirement withholdings
If a minister has retirement coming out of his paycheck, but the Church does not have a retirement plan set up.they just turn around and pay the amount …
Cell phone paid by church
Our church pays for the pastor’s cell phone that he uses for church and personal, do I add this amount to his W-2?
Withholding social security allowance
We have a ordained/licensed pastor we pay $200 a week. The deacons voted and want to start paying the “employer” portion of the SECA tax, 7.65% being …
I have filing question?
I took a salary reduction to have money designated as Social Security allowance which I received quarterly to pay my Self employment taxes. Is that allowance …
Health Savings Account
What are the guidelines for a pastor’s health savings account and is it reported as a benefit or taxable income?
Preacher with 0 wages
How do you properly fill out a w2 on a tax return when the preachers only income was the housing allowance and boxes 1 and 16 are 0. State and Federal …
Housing Allowance and Mortgage Interest
If a Minister has a housing allowance and deducts expenses for the house he owns, like mortgage interest, taxes, utilities against it; Can the mortgage …
W2
Our priest has a salary of $7800 per year. He lives in a house that is church’ property. Can I add $24000 to his salary and write in W2 form that he received …
Housing Allowance ?
Our church has a parsonage. We pay our pastor a salary and have designed $9600 as housing allowance. The housing allowance is not added to the gross wages. …
Excessive Housing Allowance?
For 2014 my Pastor’s W2 reflects a salary of $5,150 in box 1 and a housing allowance of $96,750 in box 14. This year there will be no salary – just the …
Health Insurance Payments
With the new PPACA rules, do I put all the contributions made by the church on the Pastor’s behalf in box 12 with a DD designation?
W-2 Question
I need help filling out our Pastor’s W2. His salary is $60,000 with no withholding on income tax, social security or medicare tax. The housing allowance …
Travel Insurance
In a non-profit 501c3 ministry, can the ministry pay for travel insurance for the traveling minister when it includes a death benefit for the spouse (as …
Recording of Housing Allowance on W-2
Is it required to list the housing allowance amount in Box 14 of a W-2 or can the church just issue a letter to the minister with the amount paid to him …
SELF EMPLOYED MINISTER
OUR PASTOR IS PAID AS A SELF EMPLOYED MINISTER. I DO GIVE HIM A W-2 EVERY YEAR. WHAT FORMS DO I NEED HIM TO SIGN WHEN HE IS HIRED (W-4, NEW HIRE REPORTING …
Credit report for our church?
We would like to determine if we have outstanding credit cards that we don’t know about – could have been issued to employees in past years.
Our banker …
Medicare?? SS??
Is it bad if we have been taking out SS and Medicare? Since I started helping they have been doing it and that has been 8 years ago. someone told them …
Federal Tax Withholdings
Example: Pastor Salary is $12,000 for the year. He has elected through W-4 to have $200 federal taxes withheld per month. So will box 1 of W-2 read 9600 …
W2 and W3 Housing Allowance Only
The church approved a housing allowance of up to $20,000 for our Pastor. This year he was only paid $16,000, so he really did not receive “salary”, only …
W2 Not Showing Housing Allowance
When entering the Housing allowance in the W2 using QuickBooks, I used box 14 and entered the amount as per your example. However, once I printed the W2, …
Gas allowance for ministers
I travel to and from church for church related services 3 times a week. I also travel on non-services days for ministerial duties. Each round trip is …
Witholding Tax credit?
There is a tax credit for churches if you pay in witholding tax. We have not paid witholding tax in the past, but we were told to start witholding from …
Minister’s W-2
In SC, which items from the Ministerial Support Form go onto the W-2, and on which lines?
moving allotment
Our church paid our new minister a moving allotment .. to cover his moving expenses. He was paid directly $7,250 (no receipts requested or accountability …
How to report annuity to a pastor?
I am trying to do the payroll for our pastor. We pay 166.66 monthly to our pastor as an annuity. Is this amount included in taxable income – or is it nontaxable …
Board of Pensions
Where is the money paid by the church on behalf of the pastor to the Board of Pensions shown?
1099 or W2 for visiting clergy?
Our full time Pastor retired in July, we have been paying an Interim Pastor a monthly stipend to oversee business affairs but he rarely preaches. We have …
W2 – Housing Allowance Only
Our Pastor does not receive a salary from the church. He does, however, receive a housing allowance. Should we be filing W4 or W2 just for housing allowance? …
how to count the housing allowance
we do not pay a housing allowance separate from actual salary it is included in salary so do I minus it from salary then report it in box 14?
Housing Allowance Adapted Resolution
I looked at your sample adapted resolution for a pastor’s housing allowance. Our church does not own a parsonage but wants to pay directly the mortgage …
W-2 Housing Allowance
We made a serious error on our minister’s W-2 for 2012 and are trying to correct it by putting the right numbers in the right boxes.
His housing allowance …
Part Time Lay Minister W2
I am a part time lay minister, ever other week at a very small church. I receive a small amount for each service, no housing, no insurance, no gas or …
Church donation to the minister’s IRA
If the church has decided to donate $2000 a year to a minister’s IRA…..how is this done? Does the church write and send the check to the account on …
403(b) reporting on W-2
The church paid the pastor $20,000 in wages and $10,000 in housing allowance. $1000 was withheld from the pastors wages and put in a 403(b) plan leaving …
education loans
If the church pays the pastor’s education loans to him, is this income to him? What if they pay the loan institution directly?
Pastor W2 and Housing allowance
OK, long post. Our Pastor makes 35k annually. Has 15k in housing allowance. We withheld no federal or state tax. We withheld his portion of SST (4.2% …
Social Security tax allowance
If the church has agreed to pay half of the Social Security Tax and that amount is added to wages in box 1, doesn’t that mean that the pastor will be paying …
Confused!
If my pastor receives a 1099 form is he still allowed to receive a housing allowance? How do we set up a housing allowance?
Love this website,
Faye …
Box 2-13 on Pastor’s W2
Your instructions for filling out a Pastor’s W2 states: “Leave boxes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 blank. Do not insert 0s.”
I file our …
Minister ordained in Mid-year
Our minister became ordained on May 31st. We paid her SS & Med taxes throughout the year and withheld income tax for her. Do I need to give her two W2’s? …
What is included in housing allowance?
Our pastor lives in our parsonage, the church pays the mortgage, garbage, water, electric, lawn care, all repairs and upkeep for the property so should …
HEALTH INSURANCE
WE REIMBURSE OUR PASTOR FOR HIS HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM. DO I INCLUDE IT IN THE TOTAL WAGES OR NOT?
how to report gifts
For a minister – how are gifts reported on 1099? how are gifts reported on W-2?
4361 exempt
where on 1040 do i report my husband’s wages(ordained minister)which were reported by church on w-2. irs says to report it on selfemployment line and …
How to Report Housing allowance
Our Pastor’s salary is 30,000 for the year; the church has designated 18000 for housing allowance.
Should we subtract 18000 from 30000 and report 12000 …
Self Employment allowance
How can we break the circle. We figure out the Self Employment Tax for the priest. We give him an allowance for the entire amount. We add the entire amount …
Mistake in Example
In the example above, it shows the pastor’s salary of $25,000 + 2500 + 6000 = $33,500, then the whole thing is put in Box 1. That isn’t right. It should …
Tax Exempt
Our church was informed we had to pay taxes due to the IRS moving us from a 944 form to a 941 form without notification. How does this work?
compenstation
is it mandatory or mandated by law that the Pastor be issued a w-2 for his compensation? can a Pastor request to receive his compensation as a Housing …
Housing allowance in Georgia
I know how to complete the w-2 as far as federal wages are concerned, but I can’t find out what to do for the state portion. In Georgia is the housing …
collapsible transaction theory?
This is my first year as treasurer. Last year my pastor went to have his taxes done and was told to get a new W-2 that has his wages on it minus the ammount …
W2 vs 1099 Pastor salary
I have a 1099 for our pastor, where do we put his salary?
I put is medical helath insurance in Box 6 and his housing allowance in box 7, where do i …
Are W-2’s required
Are we required to give our Pastor a w-2 FORM and is it his responsibilty to report it? What do we with our copies?
We are new to this and I’m not sure …
w-3 transmittal form
The pastor has an housing allowance of $12,000 and income of $10,000. He shows income in box 1 of the w-2 wages and shows $12,000 housing allowance in …
What is EIN
What is EIN ?
vickey’s reply
Employer Identification Number. If you need to apply for one you will need to fill out IRS Form SS-4.
See …
Allowance added to wages on w-2
My allowance was include in my wages on my w-2 how can I fix this because now the IRS says I owe them more money. I have an agreement with the church I …
Minister’s taxes withheld incorrectly
If Minister had fed, social security, and Medicare taxes withheld in first quarter of the year , but not the next 3 quarters . How can this be corrected …
Advice for W-2 form
Question regarding an error on a W-2 for a minister:
Thank you for your confirming my thought about the taxable income. Here is the situation I really …
Minister Did Not Complete a W-4 Form
We paid the minister a small salary monthly; however, no taxes were withheld. A W-4 form was not completed. Is there a problem with issuing a W-2 at this …
Including Dues Wages on the W-2?
Are dues wages on the minister’s W-2?
Vickey’s reply
I found this on About.com “Understanding Form W-2:
Your employer may report additional …
W-2 for Pastors
Do we issue W-2’s to pastors if they do not have any tax taken from their checks? And if this is the case how do you report it on the 941 form so that …
Issuing W-2s
I have been the pastor at my church for a little over a year. I recently discovered that we have not been issuing W-2’s to the pastor or our musicians. …
