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The brand-new Reimbursement & Expense Recovery Bonus Policy and Standard applies to all expenses as of January 1, 2023.

What are Reimbursements and Expense Recovery Bonuses?

We are using important new language for the Policy, Standard, and Forms in 2023.

Expenses that qualify under IRS guidance as non-taxable reimbursable business (ministry) expenses are referred to as Reimbursements on the new Standard and Form.
An Expense Recovery Bonus (ERB), formerly known as taxable reimbursement, is applied when the submission of expenses does not qualify for "reimbursement" under IRS guidance. These will take the form of a bonus, which will be treated as additional taxable wages (compensation). Since only paid employees can receive a taxable bonus, associates are not eligible to submit a request for an Expense Recovery Bonus or any expense with a taxable (ERB) component.

Highlights of Significant New Changes in 2023

The Ministry Expense Bonus amounts have changed. Previously, the ME bonus was broken down into individual expense category maximum amounts. This will no longer be required. Reliant is now asking U.S. field workers to determine the appropriate total ME Bonus amount (up to a specific, designated monthly total) based on the amount needed for the individual. In addition to this change, we have separated monthly phone service expenses. This allows you to receive funds to cover the monthly phone expense as non-taxable. Please review Ministry Expense Bonuses for more details on the ME bonus and monthly phone service changes before submitting a new support goal. The ability to create a new support goal (for U.S. field workers that are career workers not in an internship or residency program) using the new ME bonus and monthly phone service amounts will be available for submission on Staffnet beginning mid-late December.
Computers, Equipment, Mobile Phones, and Some Furniture- These items used to be 100% taxable. In the future, they will be 75 % reimbursable (non-taxable) and 25% ERB (taxable) with the requirement that you intend to continue working with Reliant (at 20 hours or more for the next 12 months). We have also increased the max limits to be greater and changed the number of years before you can purchase these items again. Please review the Standard for specific details for each type.
Local mileage for necessary ministry-related trips is now 50 miles each way from the starting ministry location rather than 100 miles.
Moving forward, the Spiritual & Ministry Planning Retreats will require the submission of a Personal Development Plan (PDP). A PDP will be submitted and reviewed as a tab in the regular annual Job Description form and process.
Others - you will find these and many other minor changes highlighted directly on the Standard Page.

Please don't hesitate to contact your Program Team Liaison (listed at the bottom of this page) if you need help navigating the new policy, standard, or form.

What Do I Need To Do?

Watch the introduction video. This 14-minute video will brief you on the new Policy and Standard. Please take the time to watch this educational and slightly entertaining video. Click on the green button below to view.

Read the new Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Policy in the new space in the Field Manual.

Familiarize yourself with the completely new Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus Standard. This page details all the important expense submission information you need, including yellow "Note" boxes throughout to highlight all changes. This single page holds all the details to make things more user-friendly and helpful for you.

Be on the lookout for all new Forms & Procedures in the new year. We are also overhauling the Forms you use to submit these Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus requests so that they align exactly with the Policy and Standard we're sharing with you now. The new forms (and the associated Policy & Standard) will apply to all 2023 expenses. We will be rolling them out to you, along with detailed instructions on how to use them, at the beginning of January.

As a preview of how these forms are changing: we will be separating project fund expense submissions into their own separate form and will be separating Spiritual Retreat expenses as well. We will be deleting some forms (such as computer and education forms) and merging some of the little-used forms into one form for Reimbursement and Expense Recovery Bonus submissions.

It is important to remember that we will have the current (2022) Reimbursement information up in the Field Manual for the first few months of the new year because there will continue to be submissions of 2022 expenses. Pay close attention to which information applies to your expenses during this transition time based on when the expenses occurred.

Questions?

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