Originally published on Forbes.com July 31st, 2013
Reverend Ricky Williams asked the Tax Court to allow him to exclude $33,126 of his $101,733 compensation as a housing allowance. The Tax Court said no, but if you are not familiar with Code Section 107, you might be surprised by the reason.
The “parsonage exclusion” (Code Section 107) allows “ministers of the gospel” to exclude from income amounts designated by their congregations as housing allowances. The very existence of the exclusion generates controversy. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is currently in court challenging its constitutionality. Perceived abuse of the exclusion by mega-church pastors with six figure exclusions is another source of controversy. Some pastors have mighty fine homes as we will see in the upcoming reality show Pastors of LA
There is no dollar limit on the parsonage exclusion.
Nonetheless, as my blogging buddy Reverend William Thornton will point out the benefit is usually rather modest.
Reverend Ricky Williams went to work for the St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 2005 at an agreed salary of $80,000 and a $500 per month housing allowance for six months. The housing allowance could be extended by a vote of the Deacon Ministry. Now that is a pretty modest benefit.
The 2007 Audit
The IRS had issues with Reverend Williams 2007 Schedule C (Many ministers are paid by their churches as independent contractors.)
The church paid petitioner as a contract worker. Consistent with this, petitioner reported his income on Schedule C. Petitioners reported $85,077 in gross receipts on the Schedule C attached to their return and deducted $82,076 in expenses.
The notice of deficiency determined that petitioners had unreported Schedule C gross receipts or sales of $18,256 and disallowed the following deductions for lack of substantiation: (1) Schedule C deductions of $29,989 for business use of home, $14,457 for supplies, and $13,678 for car and truck expenses and (2) Schedule A deductions of $2,229 for cash contributions.
Although his initial Tax Court petition indicated that he had substantiation for all those expenses, Reverend Williams went back to the drawing board and worked up a revised Schedule C. The revised Schedule C included a parsonage exclusion of $33,126. That was the only thing left for the Tax Court to decide on.
The Elements of the Parsonage Exclusion
The IRS did not challenge Reverend Williams’ status as a “minister of the gospel” nor that he had spent $33,126 on expenses that would qualify as housing expenses. The argument was that the designation of the amount was not in accordance with the regulations.
As a prerequisite for this exclusion, the taxpayer must establish that there was a designation of the rental allowance pursuant to official church action before payment. Sec. 1.107-1(b), Income Tax Regs. distinguished from salary or other remuneration.
Reverend Williams had an argument:
The employment agreement that petitioner entered into with the church in September 2005 provides that the church would assist petitioner with a $500 per month housing allowance for six months from the date petitioner signed the agreement but does not designate any other amount as a rental allowance. Petitioner did not assert that the six-month period was extended. Petitioner provided a purported second employment agreement at trial.
The worst possible thing you can hear from a Tax Court judge is “purport” or any of its forms such as “purporting” or “purported”. It is the Tax Court equivalent of “Sez you”.
Although the second employment agreement is dated 2005, it was signed by petitioner and the church in 2012. Petitioner asserts that the second agreement was intended to clarify the original employment agreement because the original agreement was a “generic-type layout contract” between petitioner and the church in which “some of the stuff * * * had not been defined”. The second employment agreement discusses a parsonage allowance and provides that “Parsonage allowance shall include all cost associated with facilitating a proper living facilities for the Employee and his family. In short these costs shall include but not limited to: Monthly rental or Mortgage costs, Gardening, Cable TV, Internet Service Costs, Security System Maintenance, Repair and Maintenance, Utilities, Etc.”
The Tax Court did not buy it:
The original employment agreement does not designate a rental allowance, and the second employment agreement was executed in 2012 and therefore could not designate a rental allowance before payment in 2007. Petitioners have therefore not established that the amounts at issue were properly designated as a rental allowance by official church action.
The Practical Lesson
Church governing bodies need to set housing allowances up front. I’m sure that having learned this lesson the hard way Reverend Williams and St. John Missionary Baptist Church won’t be making the same mistake again.
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