Category: Christianity Today

Three examples demonstrate how to substantiate donations of land and buildings in accordance with tax law.

This article is the first of a two-part series on substantiating noncash gifts. Part two, which will appear in the September issue, will focus on the special rules related to donations of noncash “personal property” — such as clothing, cars, boats, household items and stock.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Finance Today

A U.S. Tax Court judge disallowed a deduction — albeit reluctantly — of $18.5 million for donations of real estate. The donors, Joseph and Shirley Mohamed, a philanthropic couple whose charitable causes included Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Sacramento Food Bank, had donated real estate worth $20.3 million several years before. They had claimed an $18.5 million deduction on their federal tax return.

The Mohameds failed to get the required appraisals for their property at the time of donation. And they lacked the mandated documentation at the time of filing. (Joseph Mohamed said he self-prepared the couple’s taxes and had failed to read instructions.)

Judge Mark Holmes stated:

We recognize that this result is harsh — a complete denial of charitable deductions to a couple that did not overvalue, and may well have undervalued, their contributions — all reported on forms that even to the Court’s eyes seemed likely to mislead someone who didn’t read the instructions. But the problems of misvalued property are so great that Congress was quite specific about what the charitably inclined have to do to defend their deductions, and we cannot in a single sympathetic case undermine those rules.

This case is an example of how good intentions don’t supersede tax law, said Ted Batson, a certified public accountant and licensed attorney with national nonprofit consulting firm CapinCrouse.

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This article appears on the August 2018 cover of Church Finance Today, a publication of Christianity Today.

Managing the money of the church includes being up-to-date on insurance policies.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Finance Today

After Hurricane Harvey struck southeast Texas last year, an Oklahoma church sent 150 people to help with disaster relief.

Before they left, church leaders worked to bolster safety on the nearly 1,000-mile round trip: They rented 18 newer-model vans and required volunteer drivers to complete an online training course.

This was in addition to making sure the vehicles, drivers, and passengers had insurance coverage — in the event of an accident — through the congregation’s insurance policies.

“God forbid, if we had an accident with a van load full of people—you can run up some pretty high medical expenses,” said John Trotter, elder and administrator for the Oklahoma church. He noted that the congregation has both a general liability policy and a $1 million umbrella policy to cover a catastrophic event on the highway. Those policies, he said, allow the congregation to waive any additional insurance through the rental company.

Managing the money of the church includes being up-to-date on insurance policies — knowing what types of coverage are essential, that policies include all possible drivers and vehicle scenarios, and that the limits are adequate.

Here are six questions to help church leaders when evaluating vehicle insurance coverage.

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This article appears on the March 2018 cover of Church Finance Today, a publication of Christianity Today.

Related: Should a church own or rent vehicles?

Related: When volunteers drive for your church

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Law and Tax

A mother accused a Sunday school teacher of molesting her young daughter. But the crime never happened — video from a church security camera proved the accusation false.

A couple broke into a church intent on stealing the Sunday offering. But a camera captured their faces — and the surveillance footage was used to identify both and link them to a string of burglaries.

Both real-life scenarios point to the benefits of church security cameras in a world in which such technology is readily available and increasingly affordable.Here are five reasons all churches should consider investing in cameras, according to security and insurance experts.

1. They can deter criminals, including sexual predators.

“If I am a burglar or I am someone interested in doing some type of a sexual act with a child, I’m going to go to the path of least resistance,” said Scott Figgins, vice president of underwriting for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company. “I’m going to go to the church that doesn’t have a very secure facility. . . . It’s just the common nature of those seeking to do bad things that they will go after the easiest targets.”

David White, senior risk control consultant with Church Mutual Insurance Company, echoed Figgins’s thoughts: “Cameras are great for deterring crime. Bad guys don’t want to get caught, and if there’s a chance they’re going to get caught, they’ll go to a softer target somewhere.”

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This article appears on the website of Church Law and Tax, a publication of Christianity Today.

Sophisticated messages can appear to come from a leader in the targeted church.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | For Church Finance Today

Tim Samuel nearly fell for an email scam that has cost victims billions of dollars.

Samuel, chief financial officer for Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland, received a message that appeared to come from the church’s information technology director.

“I was blown away because … I almost got tricked here,” Samuel said.

But at closer glance, the CFO noticed problems with the emailed “invoice” for a security training awareness program. For example, while the “sender” gave the familiar name of Bridgeway’s IT person and apparently was aware the church had been installing a new security system, the email address did not match the one in Samuel’s records.

The scheme that targeted Samuel’s church is an example of what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls a business email compromise scam—dubbed “BEC.” According to an FBI review of domestic and international data, the growing problem resulted in 22,143 reported victims and $3.1 billion in losses from October 2013 through May 2016.

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This article appears on the March 2017 cover of Church Finance Today, a publication of Christianity Today.