https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l1GfwrTF9U In today's video, Amy answers a question from a Pastor's Wallet reader whose church wants to help him purchase a car and he's wondering if that is considered taxable income.

This is an excerpt from my book, The Pastor’s Wallet Complete Guide to the Clergy Housing Allowance:  The church is not required to report the housing allowance to the IRS. Unless a church includes it in an informational section on Form W-2, the IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) are only made aware of the housing allowance when a minister files Schedule SE to pay Social Security taxes under SECA.  Form W-2 You should review your Form W-2 that you receive every year to make sure your church prepared it correctly. Many church treasurers and bookkeepers have received absolutely zero training, they’re just doing it because they’re not good at saying no. So, make sure to double check. This is what it should look like: Box 1  Wages excluding housing allowance. This is what the church reports to the IRS as your income. The housing allowance is exempt from income and should therefore not ...

https://youtu.be/WiXnvxb1uCA In today's video, Amy answers a question from a Pastor's Wallet reader who recently moved and wants to know if they can change their housing allowance after it has already been set by the elders.

Today’s post is going to be a review of a book written especially for YOU; The Minister’s Retirement, by C.J. Cagle. The author contacted me through this blog late last year offering to send me a copy and I finally found the time to read it on a flight this spring.  Some Context Going in, I knew nothing of the book or the author, only that over six months ago I had said I would read the book and I like to be a woman of my word. While The Minister’s Retirement doesn’t sound like my first choice for vacation reading (especially after spending the last two years studying finance in-depth), six hours on an airplane is just too valuable to waste.  I should probably also give you some context for who I am as a reviewer. First of all, I’ve been studying pastoral finances for the past five years. I just completed ...

Recently, I explained to you what financial planning is. Just like pastoring is a whole lot more than just preaching, financial planning is a whole lot more than just investments. If you haven’t read that article, I would recommend reading it here before continuing on.  I gave an overview of the different areas of financial planning in that article and now today we will do a deep dive and look at some examples of how that plays out for pastors and the strategies that we use that are unique to people in your position. Let’s start with the clergy housing allowance. That’s an easy one, right? Just maximize it and save on taxes? Not always. Let me show you how a financial planner approaches these things. Housing Allowance Sometimes maximizing your housing allowance can actually cost you money. Take, for example, the child tax credit. A portion of the child tax credit is ...

I am now officially a financial planner. When I tell people I’m a financial planner, they usually say something like, “So you do investing?” Most people think that financial planning is managing people’s stock and bond investments and some think it involves selling insurance. But it’s not that at all. It’s just like when you say you are busy and people say, “Well what do you actually do besides preach on Sunday? What could possibly keep you busy Monday through Friday?” Sometimes that makes you want to smack your forehead or curl up into a fetal position and cry out, “Why, Lord?” Doesn’t it? That’s because you are not a preacher, you are a pastor. Your job is to shepherd the people of God into Christlikeness and preaching is just a tiny part of that. If all you did was preach, the vast majority of the people under your care would not ...

Clergy and religious workers are now eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) based on their religious work. To be eligible, the loans must still be direct, 120 payments must be made, and the borrower must work for a qualifying employer. View post

If you have kids, there’s a good chance that you received some money from the IRS in the last couple of days. It is a part of the American Rescue Plan legislation that was passed in March, an advanced payment of your 2021 child tax credit. Along with money in people’s pockets, it has caused an incredible amount of confusion.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen so much confusion surrounding something that so broadly affects Americans and has had good press coverage. As pastors, you’re used to confusing rules (seriously, dual-status taxation?!?), but this is widespread among the general population, not a unique group like ministers. So, I decided to spell it all out for you today. I’ve seen all kinds of questions regarding how it will affect taxes in the spring, what to do with the money, and if people should opt out of the payments. Let’s start from ...

A lot of letters and numbers are often thrown around in reference to retirement plans. What are they and what differences and similarities do they have? View post

This is a guest post by Paul McWilliams, an independent financial advisor with Inspire Advisors who specializes in helping organizations set up and administer retirement plans. In addition to his technical knowledge, Paul is also a pastor’s kid! Paul can be reached for questions at paul.mcwilliams@inspireadvisors.com. Retirement is a popular topic these days because most Americans are financially unprepared for it. Pastors and church employees are no different. While many workers have employer-sponsored 401(k)s to save into, a lot of pastors are left on their own. Over half of the churches in the country have less than 100 people in attendance each week, so many churches feel they are too small to sponsor a retirement plan for their pastor and staff.  I’m here to tell you that it’s not true. No matter how small your church is, there are ways for you to sponsor a retirement plan and it doesn’t even have ...