I have a friend at a Texas church that proposed a trip to their congregation (off-camera) to fund a $10,000 trip to an exotic destination for a 10 day vacation as a surprise to the senior pastor and his wife. When the donation bucket was finally opened in Church Center (church planning and giving app) the congregation was told the trip was already paid for and all donations would go to reimbursement. Where this get's murky is there is no indication of total amount raised in Church Center and just a bucket where you can donate money (which even non-members can donate to today even though the trip already happened), but regarding 501(c)(3) compliance the donations are marked as tax-deductible similar to tithes and offering.
From what I understand these donations should be marked as non-deductible and the trip amount should be on the lead pastor's W2. Although it was proposed to the congregation as a vacation can they retroactively change it to be some kind of missions work to make it deductible? And if this gets them in IRS hot water what does this mean for all the people who donated to this?
Can a church lose 501(c)(3) for this?
byu/Different-Habit-5109 intax
Posted by Different-Habit-5109
3 Comments
>”can they retroactively change it to be some kind of missions work?”
Render unto Caesar . . .
It is almost impossible to get a church’s charitable status revoked. Nobody is auditing them, and even if people complain, the IRS won’t go after them.
Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. This is just a piglet. Hogs like Tammy Faye Bakker get slaughtered. Seriously though, if the board approved this, it can be considered a bonus added to his regular salary and taxable income to the pastor. Money donated to the church for salaries is copacetic.
Too many churches get in trouble not having a parliamentary board with minutes. Otherwise it’s hard to sort out church business from non church business. Dot the I’s and this should fly.