Ministry News

4 Taxes Your Church May Not Owe

Details: Wednesday, 09 February 2011 11:13

accountant It seems crazy to think that a church, which is a tax-exempt entity, could be paying taxes needlessly. Because your federal exemption exempts your church only from paying federal income tax many state and local authorities may try to charge you tax as well. Knowing what taxes your church doesn’t have to pay is very important!

1. Sales tax. Do you know for sure that the individual in your accounting department is diligently monitoring every invoice to make sure you are not paying sales and use tax? Even recurring bills can include sales tax without you realizing it. Sales tax can be rolled into other items or even miscoded on utility bills. Depending on the state you are in, it could be years before your church realizes it. Follow up with your staff members and ask them to call every vendor to make sure they know your organization is a church, and verify that you have been classified correctly in their billing software. One church received a refund check for three years’ worth of overpayment on taxes from an electric bill!

2. Property taxes. Always review how much your states’ property taxes are for your church building, any auxiliary property the church owns, land owned by the church and church-owned parsonages. Some states have exemptions for ministers who live in church-owned property, for religious property, or for those with a duly held license, so be sure to thoroughly research the exemptions in your state. If you have an additional church- or ministry-owned property, the local assessor’s office may try to assess it if particular criteria for the property are not specified, such as for use as a “worship auditorium” or other purpose. Be sure that the assessment has been thoroughly analyzed to confirm that you are not overpaying. If the fair market value of your church or church property has decreased, be sure to thoroughly check the assessment to make sure items are calculated correctly, if by chance you live in a county where certain property taxes may be applicable. You might want to consider hiring a local property-tax professional who specializes in reducing tax bills to assist your church.

3. Payroll taxes. Are you absolutely certain your church payroll is being run correctly? In our experience, numerous administrators believe so, but upon closer review discover numerous errors. Do you use a large company to process your payroll automatically? If so, be sure the company hasn’t set you up as a for-profit corporation instead of a church. If you are incorrectly set up as a for-profit, they might be charging you Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) or State Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA) taxes. Ensure that your payroll processor is running the ministerial payroll correctly and not inadvertently charging the church FUTA or SUTA (if applicable, and subject to state laws). Verify that all payroll benefits are being properly processed, and all deductions are being processed as pre- or post-tax. These errors could be needlessly costing the church additional employer FICA taxes on certain benefits. Make sure you are not overpaying, because every dollar counts.

4. Hotel Use and Occupancy tax. Numerous states allow exemptions from certain hotel and occupancy taxes for 501(c)(3) organizations. When your staff plans to travel, diligently fulfill your hotel’s requirements for applying the tax exemption before they travel. Check with the hotel to see if you can fax in advance copies of your church’s IRS 501(c)(3) letter. Never let a church staff member check out from a hotel without carefully examining the bill to see if any of those taxes were inadvertently charged. Take the time to visit the front desk to have the erroneous charges deleted. It is surprising the amount of money these taxes can add up to over time! —Pamela M. Schavey, J.D., CPA; ChurchShield LLC (churchshield.com)

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Comments

0 #6 Church Payroll Servi 2011-04-21 02:37

Do you feel it's best to have a church managing their own payrolls and trying to stay on top of all the new laws or if they should be outsourcing this task to a payroll company or an accountant?

In the long run a payroll company or accountant will save them time, money and the stress of needing to research and implement new tax laws.

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+1 #5 Raynore Jones 2011-02-14 04:54

Also from Louisiana, we were told that if we are not 501c3 then we are not tax exempt. We are a small country church who has not had anyone able to do the appropriate documentation.
This is an informative article, but it doesn't tell the whole story in my humble opinion.

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0 #4 wilma 2011-02-11 08:58

check out our payroll status

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+3 #3 David Rutledge 2011-02-09 05:43

If you are going to post such an article you need to include information how church leaders can check out to see if they live in a state where no sales tax is required for churches

Here in California Sales tax and Use tax is required for churches. The churches are specifically exempted by statute for federal and state income taxes but this in no way provides an exemption for Sales tax and Use tax .

I believe you have a fiduciary responsibility to inform churches that they might not be in a state where sales tax is not required for churches and for them to check with a EA, CPA or Tax Attorney in their state.

Churches can get in trouble following the advice of this column.

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0 #2 Robert Coleman 2011-02-09 05:33

I was also told by the dept. of the secretary of State here in Ga. that churches are not exempt from sales tax in Ga. I am suspicious that this may not have been accurate. Please help me find the true answer.

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+3 #1 Robert Zannini 2011-02-09 05:03

In response to the statement on sales tax: This is NOT true in all states.
Here in Louisiana, the State Dept of Revenue clearly states the following:
"Sales to churches and nonprofit organizations are subject to sales tax unless they are specifically exempted by statute. The designation of tax-exempt status by the IRS provides for an exemption only from income tax and in no way applies to sales tax."
The article should state that this may vary from state to state. I fear some churches may get in trouble following the advice of this column.

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