Guides for church administrators
Plain-English explanations of the rules and practices behind church administration — giving statements, fund accounting, and more — with every rule linked to its official source.
Church contribution statements: what the IRS requires
For any single gift of $250 or more, a donor needs a written acknowledgment from the church before they file their tax return. The church files nothing with the IRS, one annual statement can cover the whole year, and the statement must say whether the donor received anything in return. Here is what that means in practice.
7 min readUpdated October 10, 2026Read the guideFund accounting for churches, explained
Fund accounting tracks money by the purpose it was given for, not just in one pool. Under current US accounting standards, a church’s net assets fall into two groups: with donor restrictions and without donor restrictions. Here is how that works, with examples you can apply to your own funds.
6 min readUpdated October 10, 2026Read the guidePaying your pastor: minister tax rules for churches
Ministers have a dual tax status. For income tax a pastor is usually the church’s employee and gets a Form W-2, but for Social Security and Medicare they are treated as self-employed — so the church does not withhold or pay FICA on ministerial wages. A housing allowance designated in advance can be excluded from income tax, but not from self-employment tax. Here is how the pieces fit together.
6 min readUpdated October 11, 2026Read the guideForm 1099-NEC for churches: guest speakers and contractors
Churches are not exempt from information reporting. If your church pays a person who is not its employee for services — a guest preacher, a musician, a contractor — and the year’s total reaches the reporting threshold, you file Form 1099-NEC. Starting with 2026 payments, that threshold rises from $600 to $2,000. The form goes to the payee and the IRS by January 31.
5 min readUpdated October 11, 2026Read the guide
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