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Page History
| Procedure Name: | Working with Reliant as a Commissioned or Ordained Minister |
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| Scope: | All Staff |
| Revision Date: | January 26, 2024 |
| Last Review Date: | January 26, 2024 |
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Please review the process of claiming your status as a commissioned or ordained minister in relation to your work with Reliant. You are not required to claim your work as a commissioned/ordained minister to your work with Reliant. When you submit your certificate, your tax status is immediately changed and cannot be reverted unless your job role changes where you are no longer performing ministerial services. |
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Overview
This page will help you understand some of the financial and employment issues related to becoming an ordained or commissioned minister.
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Steps to take
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1. Notify Missionary Resources you are ordained/commissioned; include copy of your certificate
Whom to email: HR@Reliant.org
2. Read Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide
Details: Once we receive your email, we will send you this book. Use it as a starting point for educating yourself on the issues of Social Security tax, parsonage allowance, Social Security exemption and other financial topics on being a minister.
3. Consult a tax professional as needed
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4. Complete a Parsonage Request form
Details: Once your parsonage amount has been approved, it will become effective on the next applicable pay period.
To change your parsonage amount in the future, simply complete a new Parsonage Request form and email it to hr@reliant.org for approval. Dave Meldrum-Green, our director of Organizational Affairs & treasurer, reviews and approves all parsonage requests.
Resources:
- Chapter 4 in Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide
- Parsonage Request form (Excel)
- Parsonage Request form (PDF version)
Whom to email: HR@Reliant.org
5. Understand your new employment status
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Resources: Chapter 6 in Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide
6. Make a well-informed decision about Social Security
Details: Ministers are granted the ability to opt out of Social Security if they meet certain requirements. By default you will remain in the system.
A decision to opt out must be based on conscience, not convenience. Remember, you cannot make the decision to opt out simply because you think you can achieve a better investment return on those funds elsewhere (economic reasons).
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Resources: Chapter 6 in Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide
7. Notify Missionary Resources about your decision
Details: If you are opting out, your email must explicitly state, “I am opting out of the Social Security System because I am conscientiously opposed to public insurance as a minister.”
Whom to email: HR@Reliant.org
Additional steps if you stay in the Social Security system
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If you are opting out of Social Security, skip down to Additional steps if you opt out of the Social Security system |
1. Decide whether to take the FICA Bonus
Details: Reliant offers an additional 7.65% in salary to offset the amount previously paid by the employer for Social Security. This bonus will be paid from the MTD account for which you are responsible and will be included in your monthly paycheck.
2. Notify Missionary Resources if you want the bonus
Details: Once Reliant receives notification that you would like the bonus, you will receive a new salary offer.
Ministers who communicate their decision to Reliant to remain in the social security system within 3 months of communicating their ordination/commissioning to Reliant will be eligible for the 7.65% FICA Bonus retroactively to the time period they began receiving Reliant wages as a minister.
Ministers who communicate this decision to Reliant anytime after 3 months will be eligible for the 7.65% FICA bonus beginning with the next available pay date. (You will only be eligible for up to 3 months of retroactive FICA bonus and must request that in your email.)
Whom to email: HR@Reliant.org
3. Submit a new Support Goal
Details: Make sure to wait to submit a new Support Goal until you have received confirmation that your bonus request has been processed.
Submitting a new Support Goal accepts and activates the bonus.
Resources: Support Goal on Staffnet
4. Look at your options for paying your tax to the IRS
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By submitting your certificate to Reliant, you are choosing to apply your new tax status to your work with Reliant. Once you submit your certificate, we must immediately change your tax status to no longer withhold FICA taxes. Once this change is made, we can not revert the tax settings unless the Minister has a job role change in which they are no longer performing ministerial services. Helpful Solomon page regarding certificate requirements - Commissioned, Licensed and/or Ordained Minister Certificate Requirements If you would like to claim your work with Reliant as that of a Commissioned/Ordained Minister, proceed to the next section. Otherwise, no further action is necessary.
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Additional Resources
- Claiming Exemption from Social Security Taxes
- Paying SECA Taxes
- Parsonage
- ECFA Ministers' Tax and Financial Guide
1. File Form 4361 with the IRS
Details: Please be aware that if you request a FICA bonus and then decide within two years that you are opting out, you may be required to repay the bonus total you have received to date.
Resources: IRS Form 4361 (Download)
2. Submit a new Support Goal
Resources: Support Goal on Staffnet
Review of steps to take
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- Notify HR@Reliant.org that you are ordained/commissioned. Include a copy of your ordination/commissioning certificate.
- Email HR@Reliant.org a new job description (Word version)
- Read Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide, which Reliant had mailed to you
- For further questions, consider talking with a professional who is up-to-date on current practices in this field. Reliant strongly encourages this.
- Complete a Parsonage Request form and submit to HR@Reliant.org (Word version)(PDF version)
- Understand your new "self-employed" status with Reliant
- Make a well-informed decision on whether to remain in the Social Security system or to opt out
- Notify HR@Reliant.org of your decision regarding Social Security
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If you are staying in the Social Security system:
- Decide whether to take the FICA Bonus
- Notify HR@Reliant.org if you would like to take the bonus
- Submit a new Support Goal to accept and activate the bonus (after you've received confirmation that your bonus request has been processed)
- Find out your options for paying your tax to the IRS
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If you are opting out of the Social Security system:
- File Form 4361 with the IRS
- Submit a new Support Goal
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Additional Resources
PDF includes:
- “Ministers and Social Security Tax” provided by: Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. www.ECFA.org.
- “Ministers Opting Out of Social Security” provided by: Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. www.ECFA.org.
- FAQ from Church Finance Today Excerpt from “Chapter 6 - Retirement and Social Security; Opting Out of Social Security” from 2012 Zondervan Minister’s Tax & Financial Guide.
- Ministers' Tax Guide by Guidestone
- Worth's Income Tax Guide for Ministers. You can contact them at 574-269-2121. They are located in Warsaw, Indiana.
- IRS Publication 517, “Social Security and Other Information for Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers”
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