The new Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Policy and Standard are effective beginning January 1, 2023. 

The Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Standard and Policy apply to all expenses incurred beginning January 1, 2023. Any expenses incurred in 2022 (even if submitted in 2023) will follow our previous policies and use the previous year's forms. Please watch the Reimburse and Expense Recovery LEARN course to help you understand the key changes to the previous standards and how to use the new expense submission request forms. 

Key Change to the Standard: Expense Recovery Bonus (ERB) is the new term for what was formerly known as a taxable reimbursement.

Key Change to the Standard: The bonus for estimated taxes has been increased to 25% (instead of the previous 20%). It is also now defaulted to automatically be added to the expense recovery bonus expense. In the past, the default was not to add the bonus, and field staff had to check the box to request that it be added.

• Expense Advance: Field staff may request advance payment for anticipated reimbursable expenses through an "Expense Advance." Advances are not available in all cases but will be considered for approval on a case-by-case basis. All unused portions of an advance must be timely returned to Reliant.
• Per Diem: Field staff may request per diem while traveling, opting to receive a daily set amount for travel expenses (lodging and meals) instead of submitting individual expense receipts for those travel expenses. 
• Grant: For expenses related directly to a ministry project fund, field staff and associates can request payment through a "Grant" rather than a project fund Reimbursement. (See Reimbursements vs. Grants for more details.) Grants are typically used for the expense of an item that will belong to the broader ministry/project on a long-term basis. 
• Bonus: For International For International workers, a separate bonus can be requested for certain expenses not available for submission through the expense submission form
• Support Goal: Certain recurring monthly expenses (e.g., monthly mobile phone service costs) can only be recovered as a ministry expense bonus through submitting an updated support goal. We encourage employees to use this benefit to offset recurring monthly costs. Associates are not eligible for this benefit and, therefore, will not be able to recover certain recurring monthly expenses.

Links for Applicable Expense Submission Forms

• Current approved Expense Submission Request Forms are required for expense submission.
  • U.S.  Expense Submission Form
  • International Expense Submission Form
  • Project Fund Expense Submission Form
  • Continuing Education Form (all costs associated with continuing education must be submitted using only this form, and pre-approval is required)
  • Spiritual and Ministry Planning Retreat Form (all costs associated with Spiritual and Ministry Planning Retreats must be submitted using only this form, and pre-approval is required)
• Expense Advances, primarily relating to large, expected travel expenditures, will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• International Bonus is available to International workers for expenses not eligible for inclusion on the International Expense Submission Form and not included in their monthly salary. The bonus can be received before the expense purchase, as receipts are not used for requesting the bonus.
• Exception Requests are available for submission in the event of a denied Reimbursement or a late submission 
• Grants are available for expenses related directly to a project fund. The full grant process involves submitting a grant request and following the Board's policy on grant reporting
• Per Diem - U.S. / Per Diem - International is available to use for travel expenses incurred during longer periods of travel (5 days or more)
• Support Goal- support goal submission is specific to program teams. Please reach out to the appropriate program liaison for assistance

With each expense submitted on the relevant form, there should be:

Key Change to the Standard: Under the previous policy and standard, approved late submissions were automatically considered taxable wages. Going forward, that will no longer be the case. Approved late submissions will be treated like any other expense regarding taxability. Therefore, if an expense Reimbursement would typically be considered non-taxable, it will remain non-taxable if approved for a late submission. 

Associate Expenses

Associates are volunteers who have been approved to conduct ministry on behalf of Reliant. Expenses incurred by Reliant associates should meet the general criteria outlined in this standard. Associates are not eligible for any expense recovery that has a taxable component or that is submitted for recovery through a support goal. 

Family Expenses

Expenses incurred related to a Reliant employee's family members (spouses that are not also a Reliant employee/associate and/or children) that coincide with a field staff's job or ministry may potentially be eligible for recovery but typically only as a taxable expense.

As a reminder, Reliant currently offers Child-Care Reimbursement through our Cafeteria Plan (tax-saving benefit). 

Project Fund Expenses

In addition to individual MTD accounts, Reliant also manages funds for ministries, non-profits, and churches. When an expense is not directly related to a field staff's specific job role but is more closely aligned to a project or ministry, a project fund Reimbursement can be submitted. Reimbursements from a project require all the same documentation as those from an MTD account and are processed according to the same submission deadlines. Project fund reimbursements also require approval by a designated signer for the fund. 

These types of Reimbursements are paid directly from the project fund based on available funds and the order in which they were received. The MTD account balance the field staff is responsible for does not incur the expense for these reimbursed costs (therefore, the order of pay from the MTD account does not apply), so it is possible for an employee who has back pay and back Reimbursements to receive payment for a Reimbursement that was submitted to be paid from a project fund. Reliant pays project fund Reimbursements if there are available funds in the project fund. A project fund can accumulate back Reimbursements. (See Project Fund Reimbursements for more details.) 

If an expense submitted through a project fund will be owned, stored, and considered solely the property of the church/ministry (with no personal usage by the individual submitting the request), then the expenses are attributable to the church/ministry, which is not taxed for expenses that are usually fully or partially taxed to the field staff MTD fund. 

If an expense is not for an item that will be considered the sole property of the church/ministry, then a field staff can still specify that the project fund (rather than an MTD account) should be the source of funds for a Reimbursement or ERB. In the case of an ERB, the taxable expenditure (including expenses with a partial taxable component) is processed similarly to ERBs funded through MTD accounts. The ERB for project funds can only be routed through a paid employee's payroll; therefore, Reliant associates may not request an expense recovery using a project fund for payment for any taxable expenditures. 

Back Reimbursement 

If the funding source does not contain sufficient funds to provide full reimbursement for the amount on an expense submission request form, Reliant will hold the form and delay reimbursement, storing the expense submission as a "back reimbursement" until sufficient funds are available in the funding source, according to Reliant's order of pay protocol.  If a field staff has more than one back reimbursement, they will be paid out in the order in which the reimbursement submissions were received once funds become available for the whole amount of each individual reimbursement. 

If the funding source covers only a portion of a back reimbursement, Reliant will not automatically partially pay the reimbursement. Field staff may request a reduction in the back reimbursement for a partial payment or altogether remove it from the queue, but in such cases, the remaining portion of a partial back reimbursement or the back reimbursement removed from the queue will not be eligible for reinstatement should funding become available later. To illustrate the process for partial reimbursement, suppose a field staff submits a $1,000 reimbursement that is next in line for the order of reimbursement payout, and only $650 is available to pay out.  The field staff may elect to send an email to reimbursements@reliant.org asking the reimbursement team to pay the $1,000 reimbursement using the available funds and acknowledging that the field staff forfeits any un-reimbursed portion of that reimbursement. Note: this action is entirely voluntary and at the discretion of the field staff.  

Here's a sample email of how to word the email.

"I would like to request that my April (Year-20xx) reimbursement totaling $X be paid out on X date using the available funds in the MTD account for which I am responsible.  I acknowledge that any un-reimbursed funds from this reimbursement will be forfeited and unable to be reimbursed at a future date. "

Reliant will retain unpaid back reimbursements for the remainder of the calendar year in which the expenses were incurred, plus two (2) additional calendar years. Once this period has expired (i.e., after January 31st of that next year, when all expense reimbursements have been completely processed and paid by Reliant), any un-reimbursed back reimbursement expenses will be marked as expired and can no longer be paid. Example: expenses submitted in 2019 are eligible for payment as a back reimbursement until January 31, 2022, if the field staff has raised sufficient funds by December 31, 2021.

Back Pay for ERBs

If funds are not available to pay an ERB, Reliant will short-check those ERBs and include them with back pay following Reliant's approved order of pay. In the order of pay, Expense Recovery Bonuses take precedence over Reimbursements per IRS requirements. Back pay is eligible for compensation/payment during the year it is incurred, plus two additional years. For example, if an ERB was submitted in March 2019 and the funding source lacks sufficient funds to pay it, the back pay resulting from the ERB is eligible to be paid until December 31, 2021.

Exiting Employment with Unpaid Reimbursements

If a field staff is exiting employment and has reached his/her final month of payroll without receiving enough funds to cover the total amount of a submitted reimbursement fully, Reliant will automatically reimburse a portion (based on available funds) of the submitted reimbursement without the field staff needing to submit a request for partial payment of the reimbursement.

As a reminder, timecards must be up to date for hourly employees to be eligible to receive Reimbursements and ERBs. 

Hand-Written Receipts

On the rare occasion when a field staff is unable to obtain a formal itemized receipt, hand-written receipts are acceptable, as long as they contain the following information:

• Name of field staff
• What was purchased
• Total amount paid
• Date
• Type of payment (check #, cash, etc)
• Name of the store (or individual) who received the money (please also include contact info (phone/email) if payment was made to an individual)
• A verification statement from a worker at the store/individual who received the money should also be included on the written receipt, along with a signature to verify the statement. Example statement: “I, name, received this money from name to cover the cost of expense in which they participated, or purchased from me, etc. on this date. -Signature”. Or the field staff can have the person email the verification statement needed from their personal email address (instead of receiving their signature in person) and attach a copy of that email along with the handwritten receipt when submitting the expense.

Receipts from Mobile/Banking App

For receipts from mobile apps (such as Venmo, Square, Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Wallet, or a banking app, etc.), field staff should be sure to include a clear description in the memo or "what's it for?" section of the transaction, to document what expense the payment is related to. The reimbursement submission should also include any information required for a valid receipt that is not visible on the mobile app "receipt" (see the guidelines above for what details must be included on the itemized receipt for it to be acceptable.) Please see the section below for details on receipts for shared expenses.

Receipts for Shared Expenses

If a Reliant field staff pays an individual for a portion of an expense that requires a receipt (and the portion exceeds $75), he/she will need to submit two receipts.  This includes both a copy of the original receipt with the total expense amount listed from the individual who collected the money and paid for the total expense, as well as a hand-written or mobile/banking app receipt for the portion paid to the individual. These two receipts provide Reliant with sufficient documentation of the transactions. The expense submission should include all details required for the hand-written or mobile/banking app receipts, as detailed above.