Do you pay taxes on insurance reimbursements

Does the Pastor have to pay taxes if a small church gives an allowance to cover insurance premiums (health and life) ?

Thank you

Comments for Do you pay taxes on insurance reimbursements

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IRS and Medi Share
by: Vickey

You are correct, Anonymous - MN. Even though participants in those programs were exempt from the ACA's mandate that was repealed as of Dec 31, 2018...the IRS does not recognize those programs as "health insurance".

So the cost to participate in those plans do not qualify as a medical expense and cannot be reimbursed through a QSEHRA.

The cost of participation is also not deductible by an individual on their personal income tax return as well =(

I participate in a medical sharing program...so I think that is terribly unfair too ...but ...for now ... it is the law =(
Do you pay taxes on insurance reimbursements
by: Anonymous - MN

Vicky, thanks for your comments especially regarding the Medi Share medical coverage. I have been searching several places to see if our Church could set up a QSEHRA for our staff that use the Share programs. My understanding is the although the IRS accepts the Share programs as coverage, the IRS does not recognize the programs as insurance therefore a QSEHRA is not available to us.
Depends on how your QSEHRA is set up
by: Vickey

First of all....regulations regarding reimbursing your minister or employees for health insurance has changed in the last few years...so do NOT believe or act on all of the articles you will find when searching for the answer to this on the web!

You must have a "legal" HRA or QSEHRA set up in order for the church to legally reimburses the pastor for individual/family health insurance.

PeopleKeep is one business I know that does that (there are probably more, but I see their articles on the web and they seem to know what they are doing =)

https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/health-insurance-for-pastors-and-clergy

One last thing...some churches reimburse their Pastors for payments on a medical sharing ministry. The payments for those at the writing of this post are not tax exempt and must be reported in box 1 of the Pastor's W-2.

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