I know this is a subject that I bring up quite often, but I have seen quite of bit of costly payroll errors already this year, so thought it would be a good topic to discuss again this month.

 

The number 1 costly error and the one I see most often with churches and nonprofits ... is incorrectly paying a worker as an independent contractor and reporting their income/stipend on a 1099!

 

Here is an important tip: an independent contractor is a self-employed person  contracted to provide serives to or perform work for your organization as a nonemployee. If your nursery worker, custodian, or musician doesn't own their own business and do similar work for other organizations...they are probably considered employees of your org by the IRS. This misclassification could one day cost you a lot of money in back taxes and penalties =(

 

Review what you can do to correct this error and read more costly payroll errors by clicking the "read more" link below...

 

 

Quick note on my bookkeeping, payroll, and consulting business.

 

Jesus has richly blessed me since I started this business in 2016 and we are now at a point that I cannot take on any more monthly bookkeeping and payroll clients. I am hoping to be able to open up some more spots this summer, but for now we have all of the monthly clients we can handle =)

 

I am still available for consultations, but please be aware that I stay pretty booked up and may not be able to fit you in for a couple of weeks. Also, please note that my hourly rate is $175 and I require the consulting fee before the session.

 

If you are interested in a consultation, you can contact me by using the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of this page:

 

We revised and added to Our "How to Book for Churches".

Lisa and I have added additional and new material in areas that I seen errors happening frequently such as some of the payroll errors we discussed in the article above.
 
So, besides learning how to keep the books and stay out of trouble with the IRS, we added and expanded on the following:

• How to keep the money safe and catch mistakes.
• Acknowledge all types of donations (cash, stock, vehicles, in-kind, and more).
• Properly handle a benevolence fund.
• Calculate and file payroll including how to fill out the new 2020 forms
• Structure pastor payroll and housing allowances
• Prepare budgets
• Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) is and how to file if you owe it
• How to fill out the 990N and 990EZ,
• And so much more.