Brand New Church Plant With No Money

I am bi-vocational. I don't accept any monies from the church. If the church cannot afford to pay out any housing allowance or the pastor refuses to receive monies from the church in order to help it, what can a pastor do to receive a tax benefit for housing allowance?

Comments for Brand New Church Plant With No Money

Click here to add your own comments

Apr 25, 2014
Understanding the Housing Allowance. . .
by: Lewis in NC

Look at the tabs to the left at this website: under Clergy/Minister you need to read Housing Allowance.

Jul 16, 2014
No Compensation Equals No Housing Allowance Benefits
by: Vickey

The housing allowance represents compensation for ministerial services, so if no compensation is available or taken...there is no tax benefit for a housing allowance.

However, as soon as your church grows to the point of being able to compensate you a little, I would definitely request it to be designated as a housing allowance.

Your church should also have an accountable reimbursement policy in place. That way they could help with business expenses and it would be nontaxable income for you. See more on setting up and maintaining an Accountable Reimbursement Policy on this page: https://www.freechurchaccounting.com/accountablereimbursementpolicy.html

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Housing Allowance.

If you want to DIY your payroll, I highly recommend you look at using Gusto! It is very user friendly and their support is awesome! Plus they know how to set up and maintain payrolls for churches and nonprofit organizations.

Note: I am a "partner" of Gusto, but as I have told you before ... I never recommend anything that we or our clients have not tried and love =)



Share this page:
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.