Tax Question

[Jon Lanier]

Seems like many bright individuals in this place with varying talents. Could anyone intellectually answer this for me?

The men of the church here are taking the church through some kind of tax compliance.


This was sent to me: ___and I are doing the Church compliance system. They are asking for your last two years of Federal and State tax returns. Is that something that you can provide before Christmas?


Does anyone know anything about this? This seems to be infringing upon my wife and my right to privacy issues. Especially since we do joint returns.

[Rick Potter]

Sounds phony to me. Why don't you go to the church office and ask if this is really from them?

My wife works at a church, and she says that they have to fill out annual tax exempt forms. These show things like beginning balance, ending balance, money coming in, money going out, etc. In other words, they are checking to make sure the church is not making a 'profit'.

No records of individuals are requested or given.

Rick Potter

[Don Alexander]

no way i'd be giving out that info been in alot of churches over my 46 years (my dad was a minister for nearly 50 years) and never heard of needing individual tax information for any reason

[Mike Archambeau]

Seems like many bright individuals in this place with varying talents. Could anyone intellectually answer this for me?

The men of the church here are taking the church through some kind of tax compliance.


This was sent to me: ___and I are doing the Church compliance system. They are asking for your last two years of Federal and State tax returns. Is that something that you can provide before Christmas?


Does anyone know anything about this? This seems to be infringing upon my wife and my right to privacy issues. Especially since we do joint returns.

Are you Clergy or Lay?

[Myk Rian]

Kinda obvious to me that you ought to ask the church, not us.

[Jim Rimmer]

I've been on finance committees at 3 different churches and cannot imagine why they would need that information.

You said that was "sent" to you... was it email or hard copy. If it was email, I would contact the church immediately because it sounds like a scam. If it was hard copy, I would contact the church immediately because it sounds like they have exceeded their need for personal information.

[Larry Browning]

Jon lists his occupation as Evangelist on his profile, so he is a clergyman. I think this may change the nature of his question. Is he the pastor of this church or is it one of many churches he preaches at? I am not any kind of tax expert so I really don't even know how this information will change the answer to his question. I just thought I would share that tidbit so that others who know about such things could respond more appropriately.

[Al Wasser]

Still Larry, if he is a minister, his charitable giving is something that is not the church's business. That's twixt he and his accountant/tax preparer, and the IRS.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I would suggest that there is no need for the church to have his tax returns. If they paid him, they had to file either a W-2 or a 1099 listing payments to him so they already have the information on what they paid him. Any other income he has from any other sources is none of their business and the IRS does not need that information from the church. The state and federal tax codes require the church to list payments to officers, trrustees, and employees and many states have laws concerning insider payments. Salaries are not insider payments as long as they are within allowed limits and are clearly listed on the tax filings.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I am not aware of any reason that your tax returns would be provided to the church. I see no reason based on the forms that I read here:

http://www.irs.gov/charities/churches/index.html

I have never heard of any church worker (called or otherwise) being required to provide a tax return back to the church.

Verify that the request is legitimate and, if so, determine intent to understand what they really require.

[Jon Lanier]

Thanks everyone. This did come from one of the Trustee's. I'm not sure why they are asking this of me, but I have come to the conclusion that it is none of their business and violates the privacy act.