For assistance, problems or questions, please email us.
Page History
Overview
This page will help you understand some of the financial and employment issues related to becoming an ordained or commissioned minister.
| Tip | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
|
Steps to take
Table of Contents maxLevel 3 minLevel 2 exclude questions style none
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
Details: We strongly encourage you to talk with a professional who is up-to-date on current practices in this field. Reliant is unable to offer tax advice for your specific situation.
4. Complete a Parsonage Request form
Details: Once your parsonage amount has been approved, it will become effective on the next applicable pay period.
...
Whom to email: hr@reliant.org
5. Understand your new employment status
Details: You are now considered "self-employed" by Reliant for purposes of Social Security and Medicare. Reliant will stop withholding FICA taxes and paying the employer portion on your behalf. FICA tax includes portions for Social Security and Medicare, and the tax rate for 2015 earnings was 15.3%.
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.
...
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
| Note |
|---|
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.
...
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.
...
Resources: Support Goal on Staffnet
4. Look at your options for paying your tax to the IRS
Details: Remember, you must begin to pay your own Social Security tax (now called SECA since you are considered self-employed) from the point in time that you are paid Reliant wages as a minister.
Resources: Chapter 7 in Zondervan Minister's Tax and Financial Guide
| Anchor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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
| UI Button | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
...
- File Form 4361 with the IRS
- Submit a new Support Goal
Additional Resources
...
