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In order for a person to work at a church legally as an independent contractor, we believe it is prudent to consider the following guidelines: · The church cannot substantially direct the person’s duties; the church can only give them overall tasks to complete. · The church cannot control or set their hours that they work. · Since their “company” provides the service, they can send anyone to do the job. · They cannot have an office at the church that is their primary office. · It cannot be their only source of income. · The church needs to have a written contract in place including cost, delivery of Services, duration (i.e. six months, one year, etc.) and a termination clause. · They cannot participate in any employee benefits plans (insurance, retirement plans, etc). · The contractor must provide annual proof of worker’s comp and liability insurance naming the church as additionally insured or the church could be held liable in the event of a claim. · The church must issue a 1099 at the end of the year for all contract wages paid if the total amount for the year exceeds $600.00 to one contractor. We strongly recommend that no payments are made until an accurate and fully completed W-9 is completed by the contractor and on file at the church. Given these requirements, many workers such as those in the nursery, kitchens, and other service areas are not 1099 contractors, but employees. Regarding interim pastors, there is disagreement over whether they should receive a W-2 or 1099. Factors such as length of service, who supervises them, and whether they are a contractor, come into play in the decision on how to report their salary. For the best practice we recommend always using the W-2 to report salaries, but seeking tax and legal counsel would be wise to avoid any future IRS issues. While there are advantages to the church to pay independent contractors who regularly work for the church such as avoiding the need to pay the employer's part of the FICA tax and the ease of terminating their services, we would recommend against their regular use. We recommend against the use of independent contractors (that regularly work at the church) because we believe it can create the following problems for the church: · Less control over the position · Leaves the church open to an IRS challenge, which the church only has a 50/50 chance of defending, not to mention the cost and hassle of litigation · In the event of insurance claims, the church may encounter issues with worker’s compensation coverage or liability insurance coverage such as sexual misconduct, etc. · The church is open to contract disputes with the independent contractor · Based on how the individual/company is filing their taxes, it could bring an unwanted tax audit to the church Our conclusion is that we do not see enough cost-saving advantages for the church to move in this direction. It also creates unnecessary red flags for the IRS. The other looming question is, why is this such an important issue for such a small incremental (if any) tax break for the individual? Because the independent contractor will have to pay employer FICA, we don’t see any large tax advantage for this shift. They can claim mileage and some home office expense (maybe), but it just does not amount to enough to place the church at risk. Here are some detailed guidelines
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Jeffrey A. Klick (Pastoral Helmsmanship)