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From Your Diocesan Finance Office and Diocesan Finance & Budget Committee
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Living into our learnings from our Discerning Our Common Call process about the importance of communications between our Bishop and his staff, committees and commissions of our Diocese and our congregations, we hope to bring you actionable ideas on a periodic basis, and invite your feedback, questions and topics for future newsletters
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- Monday is the last day to register for the free Way of St. Paul Come-and-See Experience on Saturday, February 23 at St. Matthew's, Pennington. This is one of the greatest resources we have to invest in one of the greatest needs we have: the formation, discipleship and congregational life and health of our people.
- 2018 parochial reports must be submitted online by March 1, 2019. Materials were mailed out just before Thanksgiving. Find more information and instructions on The Episcopal Church website.
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“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
Paul’s letter to the Romans traces God’s incredible arc of unchanging love for us all the way from creation to, well, the present day, really. Covenants made (by Him) and broken (by us). Grace and gratitude. Call and response. How will you respond in gratitude for God’s amazing grace?
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 Learn more! Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Create a little sacred space for yourself by watching this short video about Paul’s letter. Like it? Check out The Bible Project (www.bibleproject.com) – there’s plenty more where that came from!
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 Don’t forget—our Discerning Our Common Call Steering Committee is calling all of us—diocesan leadership teams, vestries, and congregational leadership teams—to join in the practice of starting our meetings by Dwelling in the Word with a different scripture resource every month. You’ll be surprised the difference it makes for the rest of your meeting! And as you reflect with each other on the “dwelling” questions, take a moment to think about all the other groups all across our diocesan community who are reflecting on the same scripture right along with you.
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Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) Recommended Reads for February
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As we finish out our annual meetings and regroup our vestries for the year ahead, here are some excellent resources from ECF to help you get off on the right foot and build a solid foundation:
Vestry as a Life-Giving Team
Five Resources for New Vestry Members (PS – there’s plenty here for continuing vestry members, too!)
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What is UBTI and Why Should I Care?
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 UBTI is an acronym for Unrelated Business Taxable Income, and beginning with tax year 2018 it very well may be the reason why you are required to file a Form 990-T income tax return with the IRS for the very first time, even if you owe no tax. It also may be the reason you actually owe tax for the very first time.
UBTI is not new—it’s been a part of the non-profit tax structure for quite a while. Up until last spring, however, its provisions did not include types of income that impacted many, if any, religious organizations. With the passage of the euphemistically-named “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” adding the provision of employer-provided parking as an additional component of UBTI, that all changed. And it changed retroactively to January 1, 2018.
Since that time, The Episcopal Church has joined with numerous other religious organizations to call for the repeal of this provision. Those efforts are ongoing. In the meantime, the IRS finally issued Notice 2018-99 with at least some guidance on calculation of the benefit in order to determine whether or not you may have a tax liability. They also issued Notice 2018-100, relieving taxpayers of penalties for underpayment of estimated tax that might arise from any tax liability resulting from this provision.
Do you have a parking lot? Do you pay to provide parking for your employees in a garage or on the street? Then you should read on here…but before you go, a couple of handy hints:
- you can reassess your parking arrangements, including designated/reserved spots, and make retroactive changes before March 31, 2019; and
- you should file annual Forms 990-T in a timely manner if you provide parking, even if you have no tax liability. That way you start the clock ticking on the statute of limitations, which says that the IRS has 3 years from the due date or the filing date of your return (whichever is later) to audit it. If you don’t file just because you think you don’t owe anything, that statute never starts and the IRS can make you go back as many years as they like to prove whether or not you have a liability as well as assess penalties for non-filing and non-payment if tax is found to be due.
And while your Diocesan Finance Office can’t file your tax returns for you, we can certainly help answer questions if you get stuck.
Now, take a deep breath, sit down with your beverage of choice, and read on!
Download the whole article here
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Can Your Church Save on Health Insurance?
Will your clergy or lay employees be turning 65 soon? Your church may be able to save money on the health insurance premium for them and their family. If the church employs 19 or fewer people you may qualify for the Medicare Secondary Payer Small Employer Exception. As a small employer your Medicare-eligible clergy and lay employees may be eligible for a lower premium by applying for the exception once they have their Medicare Part A card. The process can take up to 90 days so it’s a good idea to get started early. For more information, please contact Pat Hawkins, Diocesan Benefits Administrator at benefits@dioceseofnj.org.
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News You Can Use (and share with members of your congregation!)
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 What’s on a Balance Sheet? Part 4 (and final installment) of a series
While the reporting of the “equity” portion of a balance sheet for churches can be fairly complex, we’ll focus on a few items that most churches need to address.
First, to define equity, we’ll look at it simply as the difference between a church’s assets and its liabilities. We can also substitute the term “net assets” here, and I’ll do that for the balance of this article.
When we look at accounting rules for reporting our net assets to our congregations, we need to consider two areas: our amount of net assets that are unrestricted (or unencumbered by a restriction) and those amounts that are restricted.
Unrestricted net assets, generally, are the result of a math equation that takes assets minus liabilities minus restricted net assets to come up with what’s left. While “what’s left” isn’t actually a technical accounting term, it does adequately describe what the function of this section of the balance sheet is all about.
Restricted net assets, on the other hand, are where we tend to run into difficulty. There are new accounting rules (recently adopted and now effective) that address why an asset may be restricted and for how long. I think, though, for reporting to our congregations, showing that an asset of the congregation has a restriction placed upon it (and describing in your annual report to your congregation what that restriction is) accomplishes our reporting goal. Thus, by way of example, a congregation could present the net asset section of its balance sheet as follows:
| Unrestricted Net Assets |
$ 20,000 |
| Restricted Net Assets: |
| Capital Improvement Fund |
$ 45,000 |
| Memorial Garden Fund |
$ 7,500 |
| Scholarship Fund |
$ 15,000 |
| Total Net Asset |
$ 87,500 |
Questions or comments? The goal of this series of articles has been, hopefully, to give enough information to at least spark a few questions. So, if you have one (or more), just send an email to treasurer@dioceseofnj.org.
QUICKIES
Disaster Preparation and Recovery
Check out the website DisasterAssistance.gov for information on what to do in advance of winter storms, flooding and other threats including evacuation information, post-disaster financial help and special sections for families and seniors.
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From 19th century American minister Henry Ward Beecher:
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
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