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The Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Standard and Policy applies to apply to all expenses incurred beginning January 1, 2023. Any expenses incurred in 2022 (even if they are submitted in early 2023) will follow our previous policies and use the previous year's forms. Please take time to watch the Reimburse and Expense Recovery LEARN course to help understand the new key the key changes to the previous standards and how to use the new expense submission request forms.
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As noted in the policy linked above, field staff are expected to utilize sound judgment and careful financial management in regard to ministryregarding ministry-related expenses. This means ensuring that Reliant financial resources are used appropriately; support the ministry; comply with Reliant policies, applicable laws, regulations, and donor restrictions; and consider the reputation of the ministry in the sense that we strive for propriety in both fact and appearance. Our stewardship responsibility also means utilizing Reliant's non-profit status for ministry purposes alone and not for personal benefit (e.g. avoiding state sales tax on personal items).
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As noted in the policy linked above, the general criteria for determining whether an expense qualifies for reimbursement are that the expense must be:
- Reasonable in that the expense is not extreme or excessive, and it reflects the amount that would normally be spent in that specific situation;
- Ordinary in that one would normally expect this kind of expense to occur when performing ministry work;
- Necessary to achieve a valid ministry objective consistent with the mission of Reliant and its ministry partners;
- Directly related to the job/ministry of the field staff; and
- Sufficiently documented and timely submitted
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Payment of a ministry expense may be done through completed through the following types of submission requests:
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Expense Recovery Bonus: Submissions requesting recovery of expenses that do not qualify for non-taxable reimbursement under the IRS under IRS guidance are referred to as “Expense Recovery Bonus”or ” or ERB. ERB payments take the form of a bonus which will be treated as additional taxable wages (compensation) for the field staff. Due to the fact that only paid employees can receive a taxable bonus, associates are not eligible to submit a request for an ERB or for any expense that has a taxable (ERB) component.
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As with other taxable wages, estimated income taxes will be deducted from the employee's payroll for the item purchased and recovered using an ERB, based on the employee's current tax settings. To help offset the amount of tax that will be deducted, an automatic 25% bonus will be added to all ERB submissions. For example, an ERB submission for a $100 expense would result in an ERB of $125 in order to $125 to account for the estimated taxes associated with this taxable bonus. Employees may opt out of the 25% bonus for estimated taxes by selecting to exclude the tax bonus in the expense submission.
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All expense submissions should use the appropriate form, each of which is listed in the drop-down below with accessible links. Please open a new form for each month's expense submission (rather than copying a form that has previously been submitted) in order to ensure the use of updated forms and to aid accurate and timely expense processing.
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