Week 13: Minister's Taxes>>>Trenton Prieshoff

Six Most Important Things I Need to Remember About Ministerial Taxes (Other Than What Anton has Already Mentioned):

1. When buying a house, I can take off my housing expenses from the ministerial housing allowance and then take that same amount off again as a regular deduction (as I would giving tithes and other donations) and thus "Double Dip" my allowance when buying a house.
   
2. It is easy for the church to cheat on taxes by "laundering" money: such as by taking money as for sending someone to seminary or college from the person and paying it for them so that they are still paying for their own seminary education, but now they are getting a tax credit for giving to the church. These kinds of loopholes are closely watched.
3. If you opt out of paying social security, there are some pretty major repercussions: you must opt out in the first two years and if you do it for any reason other than serious religious objections, you can be charged with perjury.
4. I must make sure the church withholds money for the ministerial housing allowance ahead of time in order to benefit from it, otherwise, I don't get it. (And I need to get licensed right away, because I don't get that benefit at all until I am licensed).
5. Because I cannot legally ask the church to withhold my Social Security tax from my paycheck, I need to be aware of how much of my check to set aside myself in order to be ready for that tax when the time comes around.
6. One option I have, since the church cannot withhold my Social Security tax, is to ask them to withhold an extra 5-6K from my paycheck annually for Income Tax. When tax time comes around, I simply transfer the amount I overpaid in my Income Taxes into the Social Security tax.