IN BRIEF

For Use by ELCA Synod Offices February 2015

2015 Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide and Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches Now Available

What are the 2015 Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide and the 2015 Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches? / These two annual tax guides are written by Richard R. Hammar, an attorney, CPA, and author specializing in legal and tax issues for churches and clergy. The tax guides contain information to help clergy and churches understand how to complete their federal income tax returns.
The Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide for pastors gives special attention to schedules, forms, and sections of forms that are most relevant to pastors.
The Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches guide helps churches understand their federal tax reporting requirements.
How is the 2015 Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide helpful to pastors? / For clergy, federal tax issues can be complicated. For example, how does the IRS define clergy for federal tax purposes? Are clergy considered employees or self-employed? How do clergy pay their taxes? The Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide answers those questions, and also includes a step-by-step tax return preparation that reviews tax forms and schedules used by clergy.
How is the 2015 Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches helpful to sponsoring employers? / For most churches, an important federal reporting obligation is the withholding and reporting of employee incomes taxes and Social Security taxes. However, many churches don’t fully comply for various reasons. The Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches guide helps churches understand their federal tax reporting requirements.
Where can pastors and sponsoring employers find the tax guides? / The Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide can be found on myPortico at Retirement Center > Tax Planning Resources > Tools. The Federal Reporting Requirement for Churches can be found on EmployerLink at Resources > Additional Tax Information > Tools.
Do pastors and sponsoring employers pay a fee for these tax guides? / Portico makes both tax guides available to pastors and sponsoring employers at no cost, as part of their ELCA benefits.

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