Contributions to an Individual

Earned Mission Trip Credit 
We have a member who donated a lump sum of money to help kids with the cost of their mission trip. The donor wants the kids to earn credit towards …

Anonymous Gift Designated for Church Staff 
A member donated $3000, and requested it be given to six different staff members ($500 each). The donor wished to remain anonymous, and only gave the …

Alms Giving Directly by the Church to the Community 
What contributions can the church make to individuals under an alms program? (i.e. payments for Food, housing, etc).

Buying Capital Assets with Restricted Funds 
Our church is going through mold remediation. Our total restricted earmarked funds are currently at $65,000. I know how to handle restricted funds. …

Are contributions for associate pastor compensation tax-deductible? 
A local church receives donations to provide for an associate pastor in the future. Are these tax-deductible? A local church used a limited-term grant …

Sign nullifies donation? 
Our church hosts a golf tournament that raises money for four specific mission organizations. A “hole sponsor”, giving a $100 gift, has a sign posted …

Are Grants Tax-deductible? 
A member in our church has his private ministry to the marginalized but has no NPO. Can our church or NPO receive donations for this guy’s ministry …

One Time Gift to a Pastor 
If our church wants to give the Pastor's wife a one time gift designated by the Board of Directors from our General Fund but specific offerings were not …

Can churches give a gift to try to get more money for Lottie Moon?  
We were wondering if to try to get more money for our Lottie Moon Christmas offering our church wanted to give a coffee mug to those who give and it doesn’t …

Non-requested Donations? 
I am a commissioned counseling minister and also ordained by a church and act as a pastor with no salary. When I begin a counseling relationship, I …

Local church giving money to parishioners to invest  
A local church in mt are gave parishoners thousands of dollars to invest for the next several weeks. Then they give it back, and interest collected goes …

401K donation earmarked to pastor 
An individual is having his 401k make distributions to a church in order to take a charitable contribution but not pay income tax on the distribution. …

Maintained separate accounts for clergy 
If the church maintains a separate operating account and an account for the clergy, and upon donation the donor specifies a certain percentage to the operating …

Pastoral Education Reimbersement 
We have a salaried Youth Pastor who is working toward his divinity degree. As part of the agreement the church has with him, he is reimbursed for any school …

Missions Trip Contributions 
We've recently received contributions for our church's mission trip. For some checks received though, the memo line contains the name of the individual …

Donations made monthly to specific missionary family in a foreign county 
We receive monthly donations for missionaries in foreign countries. We send the money direct to them from our contributions funds according to donors request. …

Clarification on Earmarking Donations 
If I cannot earmark my donation to a specific person that I want to benefit from my donation, how is it possible that at Christmas Time when the newspaper …

How are love offerings reportable by the church to the IRS...1099MISC? 
We have a God's Fund as a part of our deacons where payments are made to needy community members. This is not a question of whether or not this is …

Pastor request the church make a payment to his son's college 
Recently I found out the Church session received a request from our Pastor to reduce his pay by $1,500 and instead make a payment to his son's college …

Donation to church member/1099 
If someone writes a check to the church and specifies that it is for another church member for medical bills, do we need to give the recipient of the money …

Should a pastor recieve additional compensation payment that is outside of the payroll check? 
The pastor at our church is an employee of the church and receives a paycheck regularly. In addition to the paycheck a separate check (non-payroll …

Contributions made for new hospital bed for sick church member  
Forgive me if my question is 'a given' ... but in reading the posts I was prompted to something we recently did in our church for a congregant. He …

Benefits in donating a car to an individual  
Yes, I want to know if there is any benefits in donating a car to an individual and not a qualified organization?

Offerings for the Pastor 
Thanks for the information that you provides. It's very helpful. I just want some clarity on offerings. We take up an offering every first Sunday for …

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Designated Missionary Offering 
Can I accept cash in an envelope with person's name on it for our missionary collection and in return claim it on the person's end of year annual tithing …

Can cash love gifts be given directly to a visiting missionary? 
When visiting missionaries speak at our church, we always put an offering tray out for voluntary love gifts. Usually, the love gift is entirely cash. …

Christmas gifts as flow throughs 
Our non profit occasionally receive personal gifts designated for our missionaries, usually at Christmas. They are non deductible and as such receive …

Love gift to Pastor from outside the church. 
We have a family that doesn't go to our church, but knows the Pastor and his wife. They send a check to the church almost every month for $400.00 or $500.00. …

Pastor purchases gifts for hospitalized members 
When our Pastor visits members who are in the hospital, he sometimes purchases a small gift for them and turns in the receipt for reimbursement from the …

youth fundraising 
In a church can money received from the sale of fundraising products be credited to youth accounts for their time worked selling these products and then …

Fundraiser 
I am wondering if anyone has any guidelines for determining when or if a fundraising dinner etc should be done for a family in need? Some circumstances …

Deacon Offering for Funeral Expenses of a Pastor 
My church sent out an email telling members that all money collected in the next Deacon offering will be sent to a Pastor's family to help pay for his …

What to do with donations to individuals in the church. 
I understand from other posts on your site that donations given to specific individuals are not tax-deductible. What is the best practice in that regard? …

Gym memberships 
A church member owns a gym and would like to give memberships to our pastoral staff, they want me to show this as a donation for tax purposes. Is this …

Is it acceptable to pay musicians and other performers with cash 
Some of the ministries have fundraisers and pay individual participants with cash, is this an acceptable ?

Gift to pastor taxable? 
Our pastor is retiring. Two gifts were given as farewell gifts: one was a donation made to a non-profit made in the pastor's honor; the other was a gift …

Where is the line between missionary and employee 
I'm aware of all the rules about being able to accept earmarked funds as tax-deductible for missionaries, but I want to take it a further step back and …

does church have to 1099 a missionary 
our church wants to send a gift of money to two men in South Africa. One man is South African the other American. We are under the impression if we send …

Considered to be a charitable contribution? 
A member of the church I work at paid $100.00 cash to someone to cut down a tree on the church property. The member wants to count this as a contribution. …

Contributions made to Canadian church from us citizen  
We live in the US and pay taxes here, can the donations to the church we attend across the border be deductible on our us taxes?

severance package for non-employee 
We've had a church plant discontinue operations. We are considering some type of financial package for their head pastor. He is not an employee of our …

Earmarking contributions to an unpaid minister in a church 
It recently came to my attention that our campus pastor does not get paid. There are other pastors in the organization that do but the lead pastor said …

Gifts or Contributions to Visiting Foreign Ministers 
I would like to know: 1) Can a church member make a contribution to the church, designating that particular contribution to a visiting foreign minister, …

Gift for Severance Pay 
We have let a staff member go (nothing really bad, he just wasn't a good fit). We wanted to give him a small severance package, but we could not afford …

Pastor endorses check and puts in offering 
If a pastor receives a check (from a parishioner) made out to him, then endorses the check and gives it to the church without cashing it-- should that …

Yearly collection and distribution of gifts to our church's missionaries 
There is an on going debate between the treasurers and the mission committee of our church that we really need a sound answer for. The mission committee …

Donation used to pay an church employee 
If a church gives a monthly donation to another church, can a portion of that donation be used as additional compensation for a church employee?

Memorial Funds 
Can a church accept a transfer of a Memorial Fund (In the name of a child that has passed but used to help families in need) that is currently at another …

Difference between “Earmarked” and “Recommending”.  
There’s a difference between “Earmarked” and “Recommending”. If your church has an established designed fund for Missions or a specific Mission Trip a …

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Donations to church to thank another member 
If a church member knits baby items for other church members and asks for no payment except that the person donate to the church, is that tax deductible …

New minister welcome fund 
Our church recently hired a married couple as co-ministers. Funds were collected to pay for their: 1. Moving expenses 2. Ordination and Installation …

Pastors Monetary Gifts 
If money is given to pastor as a gift how should it be handled as far as recording purposes?

Contributions designated for Altar Flowers: Non-Deductible or Deductible? 
Scenario: Church member(s) make cash-contributions for Altar Flowers in Memory/Honor of a loved one. The Church will purchase Flowers from their vendor …

designated giving to a specific ministry with in the church 
If specify that I want my monetary donation to go to a specific ministry within the church. Is it tax deductible?

Contributions to Missionaries 
I know that the IRS says that you cannot give to individuals and be deductible by the donor - does this apply to missionaries? Our church gives to specific …

Gift of appreciation when pastor resigns 
Question? A minister resigns as of a specific date. The church decides to give a gift in the amount of a full months pay to be issued at the celebration …

Should contributions to an individual be reported on a 1099 at year end? 
We collected money for a local family. Should that money be reflected on a 1099 misc. income form and given to the head of that household at the end of …

The church's governing body decides to give a minister a love offering?  
If the church's governing body decides to give a minister a love offering from the church's love offering funds can their be a yearly amount decided that …

Gift Given to an Individual at Year End -- then donor wanting to change check to Non-Profit 
I have a quick question in which I could use some insight. I work at a mission board. A donor sent a check made out to one of our missionaries. That …

Gifts to Pastor and Wife and Wife is on the Payroll 
Our Church is used througout the year as a conduit/Personal Bank for Monetary gifts that are given to the Pastor and his wife for Anniversary, Just because, …

Can Church pass the anonymous cash donation to a member of our Church 
Someone anonymously wrote on a envelope asking to transfer it to another member of our Church(who is needy), assuming there are cash only inside because …

do irs allow churhes to give presents to church members for their help in the church 
do irs allow the church to give out gifts to the members for their faithful help

Contributions designated to individuals for missions trips 
How should the church account for gifts given to individuals who are planning missions trips, but are not yet "sanctioned" missionaries? Are these gifts …

Love offering/gifts 
If a love offer/gift is taking up during the special presentation of gifts on the program and stated that the gifts that are enclosed in a love offering …

Contributions designated to "Payroll" but given to Pastor 
A church I attended (and was on staff) would accept, biweekly, a "tithe check" that was designated for "Payroll." One would think it would be divided …

Are love gifts to a staff member of a congregation tax exempt for the donor? 
I am a board member in a religious organization...During a recent fund raiser, a man gave $ 500.00 donation directly to the pastor and indicated it was …

Pass Through Gift 
Under the de minimus rule is it permissible for the church Treasurer to issue a donors receipt for tax purposes? In this case the donor issued his personal …

Contributions 
Are parishioners allowed to deduct mileage, (hospital visits etc) and the cost of food/clothing donated to other parishioners? Know the answer? Face …

love offering made to a foreigner 
Is a love offering given to a specific person, that is a foreign national and lives in his home country, tax-deductible to the donor? If we send over $600 …

Monetary benevolence for member diagnosed with Cancer 
One of the members at my church was just diagnosed with t-cell prolymphocytic leukemia. He is a school teacher and his wife has been staying home with …

Purpose of tithes and offerings 
Is it true that the IRS does not allow churches to make monetary gifts to an individual from the tithes and offerings funds? We had a guest minister who …

Going Away Gift Tax Deductible? 
We collected money from members for a going away present for our Youth Pastor. Is this tax deductible to the members? Thanks. vickey's relpy …

Benevolence Guidelines 
A fund was started for a sick child and the contributions had her name on them. What are the guidelines for distribution of the funds received? …

Love offering  
If we have love offering to pastor or youth director we consider these contributions deductable. If we have love offering for individuals we make these …

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Love Offering Tax Deductible?  
Question regarding love offering: Once a month we have musician come play at our church. Is my love offering made payable to the church tax deductible? …

Memorial Gift Designated to a Staff Member 
As at wishes of the family of a deceased person, our church collected donations as a memorial gift that was going to be used to 'buy a car for a single …