| Procedure Name: | Paying SECA Taxes |
|---|---|
| Scope: | All Staff |
| Revision Date: | Sept 2, 2025 |
Reliant's role as the employer of the minister per the IRS guidelines:
These requirements are both fulfilled by Reliant as the employer that is paying the Minister's wages.
Requirements #1: Forms 941 filed with the IRS quarterly by the employer (the taxes withheld and paid for the minister and reported on the 941 are their FEDERAL income taxes)
- Requirement #2: The W-2 is provided to the minister and the IRS. (No Social Security/Medicare wages or taxes are withheld/reported on minister earnings on the W2)
Please read Working with Reliant as a Commissioned or Ordained Minister before reviewing the following options below.
Minister's Tax Guide
You can also review this tax guide webpage highlighting information provided by GuideStone.
If you inform us that you are ordained/commissioned and you do not have an approved exemption from the IRS then you are required to pay the 15.3% SECA (previously called FICA prior to being a minister) including both the 7.65% employee and 7.65% employer portions of social security and medicare taxes. As a minister, you are eligible to receive a FICA bonus that as an employee you can use to pay your SECA tax obligation for the social security and medicare tax that was previously paid by Reliant (the 7.65% employER portion). This Fica bonus increases your monthly salary and is included in your monthly paycheck to be used towards paying the employer portion of SECA taxes on your own. Even though you are choosing to stay in the Social Security system, the employEE portion is not deducted from your paycheck anymore once you become a minister, but per the IRS, you are still responsible for paying both the employEE portion (7.65%) as well as the employER portion (7.65%). Remember, you must begin to pay your total Social Security/Medicare taxes- both the employee and employer portion- (now called SECA since you are considered self-employed) from the point in time that Reliant receives your certificate and begins recognizing you as a minister. Please follow up with your tax advisor for questions related to filing and paying taxes.
Although Reliant is not able to give tax advice, we are able to assist if you need help with these steps outlined below on how to handle your SECA taxes. You can either ask Reliant to increase your Federal Tax withholding (to include excess taxes withheld that can later be used towards your 15.3% SECA tax liability) OR you can pay the IRS your SECA taxes quarterly (you file and pay the taxes on your own).
The employee can utilize their Federal W4 form to request that Reliant (the employer) withhold additional federal income tax from the employee's Reliant paychecks. When the employee file's their taxes, any tax withholding that they requested that exceeds their federal taxes due can be used towards the amount the employee owes for their minister's social security tax (SECA) liability. As a general rule of thumb, the employee will want to ensure their federal withholding exceeds the amount they will owe in federal taxes by the 15.3% SECA amount, to ensure they will have enough excess withholding to cover that SECA liability.
Example: if the employee normally owes about $6,000 in federal taxes a year ($500 per month) and their combined wages (including parsonage) is about $7,000 a month, they'll need to ensure their MONTHLY federal withholding is $500 + ($7,000 X .153 = $1071) for a monthly total federal tax withholding of $1,571. They can ensure this by add the extra withholding amount per the steps listed below.
Please also utilize the tip box on the Tax Info & Forms (Link to Federal W4) when submitting your W4.
To withhold extra Federal taxes please complete the W-4 form with lines 1 through 5 per your "normal" settings. On line 4(c) add the extra taxes you want withheld in addition to your normal Federal taxes.
The amount on line 4(c) is "in excess of the normal taxes". For example, if someone's "normal" Federal settings are married filing jointly (both spouses work - Step 2. multiple jobs box is checked) and they typically see $400 withheld for Federal taxes, if they put "$500" on line 4(c) that person would see a total of $400 + $500 =$900 withheld from their paycheck as Federal taxes.
To calculate what amount to use for line on your W-4 form, you can....
- Estimate the amount for 4(c) by doubling your FICA bonus (so that you can pay both the employER portion (given to you as the FICA Bonus) and employEE portion). Circumstances vary, but this method tends to be accurate although potentially slightly higher than needed, which then yields a tax refund for the minister when they file their taxes.
- Seek counsel from a professional tax adviser on how to fill out your W4 form including box 4(c). See Professional Fees for details on reimbursing these costs.
- CAUTION: If you elect to claim child credits on your W4 form, your FEDERAL tax withholding will likely be very minimal. If your desiree is to use this method for withholding excess FEDERAL taxes to offset your SECA taxes due, you need to make sure your W4 form settings result in Reliant withholding excess FEDERAL income tax, (which in most cases electing to claim the child credit would hinder that goal.)
The minister pays estimated taxes (tax estimates paid can include federal and SECA or just what they owe for SECA) directly to the IRS.
Form 1040-ES is filed by the minister on 4/15, 6/15, 9/15, and 1/15.
To access the IRS payment site see https://www.irs.gov/payments.
