Church/Ministry Honorarium
If you would like to give a monetary gift to say thank you to a church or ministry (ex. for the use of their space, etc.) you can request a honorarium check be sent from Reliant directly (NOT from event advance).
You can fill out a check request and share it with events@reliant.org or for collegiate events share with collegiate.program@reliant.org.
Speaker Compensation Honorariums/Stipends
If your summer program includes guest speakers and your program wants to contribute financially to help offset their travel costs to the summer program, please provide the Reliant with a list of speakers, the dates they are coming, and how much you would like to contribute towards their travel expenses by filling out a speaker payment request form. The term for a speaker transfer payment to a Reliant employee is called a stipend, for non-Reliant employees we will send an honorarium check.
Event Speaker Payment Request Form
You can send this form at the beginning of the program with a list of all the speaker information. You will need to add a comment to confirm when the speakers do in fact arrive before Reliant will process the request.
In most cases, if the speaker is a Reliant missionary, Reliant will then transfer the pre-determined stipend amount into the MTD account the speaker is responsible with Reliant. The transfer will occur the month after they speak at the summer program. If the speaker is speaking at the beginning of a month, a special request can be made to have the stipend transferred at the end of that current month, rather than waiting until the next month. It is our preference that all transfers be made after they speak to ensure the need for the transfer.
If the speaker is not a Reliant missionary, they will be required to submit a W-9 form to Reliant. After they have spoken at the summer program and have submitted the completed W-9 form, they will then receive an honorarium check payable to them (or their ministry if that is indicated on the check request form). All payments to non-Reliant employees will result in the speaker receiving 1099 for the amount they received, which they will be required to report on their taxes as income.
As a reminder, these are transfers not bonuses. So, if an employee has backpay, they will see a change in their paycheck amount. If they do not have backpay, they will not notice any difference, but the funds will be in the account for which they are responsible for to use for reimbursements, per diem, etc. The employee will see the transfer on Toolbox under Financials and then Account Statement. The month it has been taken out will show MTD Subsidies. A new month is not fully shown until it is completely closed, which is usually mid-month of the following month. For example, a transfer from August will not appear on the August statement until mid-September. If you have questions about when a stipend will be issued, you may contact accounting@reliant.org.
Submitting reimbursements for speaker travel costs.
Reliant missionaries who have healthy balances (no backpay) in the MTD account they are responsible for with Reliant will see the pre-determined transfer amount increase the available funds (in the MTD account) to be used towards paying their reimbursements. They can then submit a reimbursement for their travel costs (payable out of the MTD fund they are responsible for) for ministry expenses they incur for their role as a summer program speaker. The reimbursement submitted to the MTD fund they are responsible for can be more, less, or equal to the provided honorarium amount given. However, any reimbursement amount above the given honorarium transfer will be reimbursed from the Reliant missionary account they are responsible for (from MTD funds raised by the missionary ) as there will not be an additional transfer from the summer program account.
For those Reliant missionaries who have unpaid backpay, the transfer will increase the available funds to be used for their payroll expenses, including any unpaid backpay. In this scenario it is still recommended that the missionary submit reimbursement for their costs incurred to speak at the summer program. However, the reimbursement will not be eligible for payment until the missionary has been paid all their outstanding backpay. Reliant keeps reimbursements on file for the current year plus 2 previous calendar years so there is time for the missionary to raise the extra support for the reimbursement to be paid at a later date when funds are available.
Exception for requesting a speaker flight to be paid for from the summer program fund directly:
If a Reliant missionary who serves as a speaker at a summer program would prefer their flight cost to be paid out of the summer program fund directly that is an option. However, the flight amount may not exceed the amount of an equivalent transfer. In this scenario the LT Finance Director will make arrangements for Reliant to book the speaker's flight and charge the flight to a Reliant credit card, to be expensed directly to the program fund. This payment option is only available for flights and cannot be utilized for mileage or other transportation expenses. This option must be chosen in advance and communicated to the Reliant summer program coordinator prior to any flights being purchased and will negate the ability of the missionary to submit a reimbursement for the flight.
Speaker Gifts
Speaker gifts
Speaker Meals
It is allowable for the event to use event funds to reimburse groceries purchased for the speaker’s meals during their time at the event. It is also allowable to include the speaker (and the speaker’s family) in event group meals in which participants and Reliant missionaries are all dining together. In the case of the summer programs that are located at a YMCA, event funds can be used for paying for speaker and speaker family meals at the cafeteria. Our assumption is payment is being made to the cafeteria directly at the time of the meal, so no invoice is being received from the YMCA for these particular meals. Therefore, maintaining an internal tracking system providing the necessary information is required, as this will be your receipt. Please keep a log that lists the speaker's name, dates they attended LT, the # of meals the speaker/wives/family had (ex. broken down for breakfast/lunch/dinner) and the total amount paid for the speaker meals during their time at LT. It is also allowable for event funds to be used for the Event Director (or other missionary attending the event with approval from the Director) to take a speaker out to eat for a single meal at a nice restaurant as a thank you. Please keep these meals to less than $40 per person and remember that alcohol cannot be purchased using petty cash funds.
Speaker meals during their time at the event may be paid by event funds (this would be in addition to receiving their honorarium/stipend) if it was a budgeted expense. See specific instructions below. 
18 Comments
Unknown User (ed.courtney@reliant.org)
Sarah Swann When I searched for W-9 forms, this page popped up. I saw the attachment was just recently added though, so I didn't want to delete it in case there was something special going on.
Sarah Swann
yes I just added it, but I did add it twice into all forms b/c the first time I saw that it had PDF written in the title rather than just as a .pdf so it was on there as W-9 PDF.pdf so I changed the name. I thought i deleted the first one though... it might just be showing up b/c I haven't emptied the trash?
Unknown User (ed.courtney@reliant.org)
Sarah Swann Sorry, I meant the page has a link to the W-9 in All Forms, but if you go to page attachments on this page, it is there as well. So two W-9 forms exist in the Field Manual right now.
user-abbc8
Dave Meldrum-Green I just saw this exception - I am really surprised we would allow this. I do understand that this is specific to LT (and NST) but this is allowing non-taxable income to be paid ahead of taxable income. I'm just wondering if you were aware of this exception?
Exception for requesting a speaker travel reimbursement from the summer program fund directly:
If a Reliant missionary who serves as a speaker at a summer program has a lot of backpay and would prefer a direct reimbursement to be paid out of the summer program fund directly that is an option. However, the reimbursement amount may not exceed the amount of an equivalent transfer. Therefore, if the missionary incurred $700 in travel costs to speak at the summer program but the eligible honorarium transfer amount is $650, then the maximum reimbursable amount would be limited to $650 (from the Summer program account). The remaining amount would have to be either forfeited or submitted on a different reimbursement form that would be eligible for payment from the MTD fund the missionary is responsible for (not the Summer Program fund). The Summer program speaker’s reimbursement from the Summer program’s account must have approval from the Summer Program Director to be accepted. These reimbursements will be processed and paid according to Reliant’s normal reimbursement policy guidelines.
Dave Meldrum-Green
user-abbc8 I really was not aware that this was an option given to a Reliant employee who spoke at LT. I agree that it is putting non-taxable travel costs to be paid out before taxable income (with the fund transfer method into the MTD account). Mike Swann can maybe comment on the history of this exception and possible give us more insight? Barb Seckler
Mike Swann
The normal practice was to do a lump-sum internal transfer to the Reliant missionary who was speaking. Sarah Swann says that on occasions in the past speaker plane flights have been reimbursed directly rather than giving a lump sum transfer into the account they are responsible for. This practice was started because there were speakers who couldn't afford for their plane flights. In particular this happened with JR during VA Beach LT, where we paid for the plane flight directly from the LT fund for him. (This would have been 5 or 6 years ago)
I'm not sure the full history, but I know we were making this exception for people who did not feel like they could come and speak without this exception happening.
It is out of the normal order of pay, though maybe it is an okay exception to make since it is for a specific program and the program is paying their expenses for them.
Dave Meldrum-Green
Thanks Mike Swann. This background and history is very helpful. This indeed is a very tricky issue. The IRS would never be pleased to see that Reliant is purposefully paying out reimbursements before paying taxable backpay - as this section of the policy states.....as a speaker at a summer program has a lot of backpay and would prefer a direct reimbursement to be paid out of the summer program fund directly. Even if this is a minor exception that gets used occasionally.
What would probably be best is consistency.....either go with a fund transfer program with everyone who speaks at LT (even those with backpay). Or simply have the employee reimburse their travel & meals expenses for speaking at LT directly from the LT program fund. If you want we can discuss this more at a manager's meeting to get Barb Seckler and user-abbc8 input as well.
user-abbc8
thanks Mike Swann and Dave Meldrum-Green I know that churches have from time to time purchased plane tickets for staff directly from church funds and we have reimbursed the church approved travel amounts for staff conference. I was completely unaware of this particular exception and only came to find out about it as I was reviewing something else yesterday. In my opinion we should not allow such an exception. The transfer to the MTD account has been the standard and still allows someone in a back pay situation to receive funds through a larger paycheck. This follows the legal standard and is applied in every other instance. I am happy to discuss at a manager's meeting but I do believe we should strike this exception.
Mike Swann
As a former LT Director, the fund transfer is MUCH easier!
Dave Meldrum-Green
Mike Swann Thanks! Then unfortunately we'll need to be consistent and go with the internal fund transfer for all speakers who are Reliant Employees. Specifically offering the direct reimbursement exception for those staff with back-pay would definitely be seen by the IRS as an intentional avoidance of income tax. I know it's not probably what you'd like to hear.
Mike Swann
I think that's fine to cut out that practice and just do honorariums, though maybe we should wait until next year's programs to change it, since they are currently operating under a different mode and may have already made promises to people. Thoughts @Sarah Swann?
user-abbc8
I think we need to strike it now and deal with issue as they arrive to determine if there are any creative solutions.
Dave Meldrum-Green
I would be fine user-abbc8 to allow it for this summer since we only have one month and a few weeks to go with LT.
Barb Seckler
Dave Meldrum-Green Mike Swann user-abbc8 Sarah Swann - I believe the thought behind this was not to evade the taxable ioncome scenario but to consider it similar to if Reliant paid for these speakers to travel using a credit card and just charged the LT Fund. Speaking at LT is a once a year thing and varies year to year so it's not a "typical" ministry expense that we expect someone to incur as a part of their normal ministry, so it's a little different in my mind from our ARP. I'm fine to remove this to simplify the process and not muddy waters but paying for a flight of a LT speaker out of a LT Dept fund doesn't seem much different than if we flew Paul Standinger to the office to speak at a morning meeting and just paid for it on our credit card or allowed him to reimburse it from 0130. It would be an attypical ministry expense specific to a special invite that we're asking him to add to his ministry duties. It's not really part of his "normal" role so expecting the office to just pay for the flight would seem appropriate and I see the LT scenario being similar. But that's just my perspective.
user-abbc8
Barb Seckler it becomes different when we allow it as a reimbursement. It's a different flow. If we want to pay for it out of an LT account using a company CC that is a forward thinking intentional means of paying for travel. If we give an option and change the "normal transfer in process" to allow the missionary to circumvent the flow of the expense specifically due to their MTD/back pay situation that is intentionally allowing non-taxable funds to be paid out in advance of taxable earnings...that is the issue.
Barb Seckler
Dave Meldrum-Green user-abbc8 - Ok how about the wording I added above, to replace what was there, allowing flights to be purchased using a Reliant credit card, in lieu of a direct LT summer project reimbursement or TSF. FYI Sarah Swann
Mike Swann
I'm okay with that if it works.
Dave Meldrum-Green
I'm fine with the new wording and procedure for the option for reimbursement directly from the LT account.