Tax Planning and Compliance for Tax-Exempt Organizations, Fifth Edition 2014 Cumulative Supplement

CHAPTER 25

Employment Taxes

§ 25.2 Ministers

*(b) How Ministers Are Special

*Appendix 25–1: Client Newsletter (New)

§ 25.2 Ministers

(b) How Ministers Are Special

p. 789. Insert at end of Housing Allowances paragraph:

Minister Driscoll maintained and used both a principal residence and a lake home. The parsonage allowance was found to extend only to a single home by the 11th Circuit in a reversal of the prior Tax Court decision.¹ IRC § 107(2) says that gross income does not include a minister's rental allowance paid as part of compensation to the extent used by him to rent or provide a home. The Tax Court found that the income exclusion is allowed when a minister has more than one home based on the Dictionary Act, which says singular terms in the IRC also include their plural form.² The 11th Circuit Court, however, limited the exclusion to one home because income exclusions should be narrowly construed.³

^*Readers should watch for new developments following appeals that undoubtedly will be filed for a district court decision that held the parsonage allowance is unconstitutional.⁴

*Appendix 25-1: Client Newsletter (New)

Blazek & Vetterling

Certified Public Accountants

Client Alert

Health Care Reform Provisions

January 1, 2014, is the effective date for the Employer Shared Responsibility (“ESR”) provisions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Although the IRS announced transition relief for 2014 so that no employer shared responsibility payments will be assessed for 2014, employers ...