HA now possibly turned income.

by Lynn
(Sacramento )

Is a pastor required to pay rent on a parsonage owned by the church?

We provide him with 2000 a month HA which was previously used to pay rent at a different location. He has since moved into the churches parsonage and now he gets the 2k a month that was previously used to pay his monthly rent.

He currently lives rent-free; NO rental obligations. Is this now income or still HA? In addition we pay him $1875/month as maintenance allowance.

Comments for HA now possibly turned income.

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Jan 15, 2013

HA now possibly turned income
by: Anonymous in NC

If the Admin. Board of your church did not preapprove a housing allowance by the end of 2011 for 2012 that is included within this almost $4000/per month that you are paying your minister, then (yes) it would all be considered income. If $2,000/per month had been preapproved for housing expenses, then some of this almost $4000 can still be excluded as housing expense. The minister calculates how much, based on housing expenses receipts; and he/she can still claim a fair market rental value on the parsonage that the church provides included with those other housing expense receipts he has. Minister husing allowances are much more complicated and involved than meets the normal tax persons eyes.

Jan 15, 2013

housing expenses
by: Anonymous

As the other person stated it must be pre-approved to be excluded from income.
Also remember the Pastor is responsible for claiming the correct amount, there is a worksheet in pub 517 for him to use to find out how much he can actually claim and how much he would consider income. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p517/ar02.html#en_US_2011_publink100033704
Pub 1828 gives guidelines on how the church should set up housing allowance. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf

hope this helps

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