A non-minister church employee becomes ordained as a minister in the middle of the year.

by Rhonda
(Bossier City, LA)

An existing church empoyee becomes ordained as a minister in the middle of the year.

I understand that a housing allowance can be established mid year, as long as the church body approves it.

I’m questioning how I will prepare the W-2 at the end of the year. Some of his income will be subject to FICA/Medicare tax, and some will be subject to self-employment tax.

I think I put the entire earnings for the year (without the housing allowance) in box 1. Boxes 3 and 5 will have only those earnings that were distributed prior to his becoming an ordained minister.

The issue is that the schedule SE does not seem to have a provision for reporting only a portion of the dollars in box 1. I’m wondering if I can create two W-2s for the same person.

One for his time as a non-minister, and a second one for his time as a minister. It’s very confusing, and researching IRS tax code is the most confusing thing of all. Thank you for any insight that you can offer.