Consider Giving Appreciated Assets
Ministry Expense App to Help You Track Your Receipts.
Shoeboxed (iOS, Android, Web) is a beautiful app that does one thing really well: It collects receipts. With Shoeboxed, you can easily snap pictures of receipts and the app extracts the vendor, total amount, payment method, date and also categorizes into the most common tax categories. More than 1 million businesses use Shoeboxed to scan and organize their receipts…
What if I Stop at the Hospital During My Commute?
Question: If I drive my personal car from my home to the hospital and then to the church office, what part of that drive is eligible for the standard mileage rates? My church says that the total miles of the trip should be added and then the usual commute miles from home to office should…
When Are Vehicle Registration Fees Deductible?
According to the IRS, vehicle registration fees are classified as a personal property tax—that is, a state or local tax charged on personal property, based on the value of the personal property (as opposed to weight or other characteristics) and assessed on a yearly basis (even if it’s collected more or less than once per…
IRS INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR CHECKLIST
Mistakenly classifying an employee as an Independent Contractor can result in significant fines and penalties. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses twenty factors to determine whether or not an employer has enough control over a worker in order for that individual to be classified as an employee. Designed only as a guideline, this checklist can…
Implementing Background Checks
HR Q & A: Q: We don’t typically do background checks, but we’re hiring a new position who will have access to sensitive information. We want to do a background check for this position, but since we’ve never done one for anyone else, we’re worried it would look discriminatory. A: You may conduct background checks…
Health Care Reform Changes Effective July 1
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance (DOL technical release 2013-03 and IRS Notice 2013-54) that may impact how your church funds medical coverage for some employees. The guidance states that, effective July 1, 2015, organizations may no longer directly pay premiums for an individual health insurance policy [a health…
HR Q&A: Verifying a Disability
Question: One of our employees has asked for an accommodation. Her desk currently faces a wall, and she has asked to move, claiming that for medical reasons she needs to be able to see at a farther distance whenever she looks up. Is it appropriate to ask for medical documentation before considering her request? HR…
Seven Steps to Take if You Receive a Notice from the IRS
After tax season ends, we all breathe a sigh of relief. We’re done with the annual tedious task of filing our taxes. For some people, though, the relief is short-lived, and ends when they receive a notice from the IRS. If you are one of the millions of people that receives a notice, step one…
Beginners Guide to Required Employee Information
When hiring new employees, you might find the process of collecting new hire information time consuming and tedious. To ensure a pleasant experience by all parties, it’s a good idea to keep a template of forms—in either an electronic format or a hard copy packet. The packet should contain all forms required to keep on…
