For a son or daughter of a Reliant missionary who is participating in/attending a international event/trip (ex. mission trip, international LT, etc.) there are three types of payment for the program costs.
- If the child wants to be full participant in the event and wants to fund raise for their program costs.
- The child would need to register and apply for the event online, fill out all the forms, pay the online application fee and be responsible to be held accountable for the same fundraising requirements as the other event participants.
- The child is eligible to send out support letters and fund raise through the event fund (this is optional, see #2 & #3 below for other options of paying for children's event fees) .
For the child to be a "full participant" and for their costs to not be taxable to the accompanying Reliant missionary parent, 1) the child must be age 13 or older and 2) the Reliant missionary parent must provide a written statement to Reliant for the child, stating the "bona fide business/ministry purpose" of the child's participation in the event. These business purposes will be reviewed by the Finance Manager to determine if the "bona fide business/ministry purpose" is sufficient based on the IRS guidelines to allow the child's event costs to be non-taxable to the Reliant missionary parent.
Excerpt from IRS Publication on Travel Expenses: Definition of a bona fide business purpose:"A bona fide business purpose exists if you can prove a real business purpose for the individual's presence. Incidental services, such as typing notes or assisting in entertaining customers, aren't enough to make the expenses deductible."
2. If the Reliant missionary wants to raise support for the child's program costs through the MTD account for which they are responsible with Reliant.
In this situation:
- The Reliant employed missionary must pay for the child's program costs.
- The Reliant employed missionary may then reimburse the child's program costs if MTD funds are available (and there's no back-pay).
For the child to be a "full participant" and for their costs to not be taxable to the accompanying Reliant missionary parent, 1) the child must be age 13 or older and 2) the Reliant missionary parent must provide a written statement to Reliant for the child, stating the "bona fide business purpose" of the child's participation in the event. These business purposes will be reviewed by the Finance Manager to determine if the "bona fide business purpose" is sufficient based on the IRS guidelines to allow the child's event costs to be non-taxable to the Reliant missionary parent.
Excerpt from IRS Publication on Travel Expenses: Definition of a bona fide business purpose:"A bona fide business purpose exists if you can prove a real business purpose for the individual's presence. Incidental services, such as typing notes or assisting in entertaining customers, aren't enough to make the expenses deductible."
3. If the Reliant missionary wants to pay for the child's program costs through a Reliant Event Fund or Department Fund.
In this situation:
- The Event Fund/Department Fund must have sufficient funds to cover the event fee for the child and the Event Fund/Dept Fund signer must approve the child's event fees to be charged to the Event Fund/Department Fund.
- For the child to be a "full participant" and for their costs to not be taxable to the accompanying Reliant missionary parent, 1) the child must be age 13 or older and 2) the Reliant missionary parent must provide a written statement to Reliant for the child, stating the "bona fide business purpose" of the child's participation in the event. These business purposes will be reviewed by the Finance Manager to determine if the "bona fide business purpose" is sufficient based on the IRS guidelines to allow the child's event costs to be non-taxable to the Reliant missionary parent.
Excerpt from IRS Publication on Travel Expenses: Definition of a bona fide business purpose:
- For the child to be a "full participant" and for their costs to not be taxable to the accompanying Reliant missionary parent, 1) the child must be age 13 or older and 2) the Reliant missionary parent must provide a written statement to Reliant for the child, stating the "bona fide business purpose" of the child's participation in the event. These business purposes will be reviewed by the Finance Manager to determine if the "bona fide business purpose" is sufficient based on the IRS guidelines to allow the child's event costs to be non-taxable to the Reliant missionary parent.
"A bona fide business purpose exists if you can prove a real business purpose for the individual's presence. Incidental services, such as typing notes or assisting in entertaining customers, aren't enough to make the expenses deductible."
Children under the age of 13 & non-participants are taxable
If the child is under age 13 (and therefore cannot be considered a "full participant" by Reliant) and/or is attending the event because the Reliant employed missionary wants to bring their family on the trip with them (the child is not going to be an official participant in the event) any costs associated for the child to attend will be taxable expenses.
Taxable Reimbursements are only available to Reliant employed missionaries
Associate missionaries are not eligible for taxable reimbursements therefore only the non-taxable scenarios above are eligible for Associate missionary children's program costs.
