FBMI Updates
Friday Financial Tip #21: Valuable Christian Resource Available
Dear FBMI Missionary Family,
This note is to make you aware of a valuable Christian resource available to you all as missionaries. Widow’s Jar Ministries is on the northeast side of Indianapolis, Indiana. Attached please find their letter of introduction, their guidelines, and an application. (The attached documents are from their website.) It is necessary to apply ahead of time and to visit by appointment. The best email address to use is jlsadowitz@gmail.com. Their website, www.widowsjar.org, is helpful, but the contact information is being updated. The attached documents are from their website.
Lana and I visited for the first time this week, and we were astonished not only by the selection but also by the extraordinary helpfulness and spirit of the staff. By God’s providence, there were some needs that we had which were unexpectedly met. For the sake of the ladies especially, it is like going to a thrift store “looking for buried treasure” and discovering much more than you hoped to find at no charge.
We told the staff that we’d like to pass on the information to you all, and they encouraged us to do so. Thank you for treating them with the same kindness if and when you should be able to visit.
Sincerely,
Bro. Siemer
Friday Financial Tip #20: The EOM and Your Receipts
Sending your receipts for ministry expenses can be challenging, especially when dealing with paper receipts. Here are a few steps you can follow to help make each month’s EOM process efficient and accurate.
1. Each month, make a new folder in your FBMI OneDrive or other cloud-based account.
2. Save any electronic receipts as PDFs in this folder. Use a name for the file that includes the date or a description.
3. For paper receipts, take a picture using your phone or other device, and save them in the same way.
4. When completing your EOM, ensure that each receipt for expenses greater than $75.00 is in the folder.
5. Submit your EOM in one of these two ways:
a. Send via email to mona.eason@fbmi.org.
i. Complete the EOM form, and attach it to an email.
ii. Choose to share your receipt folder, and then copy the link.
iii. Paste the link to your receipt folder into the email.
Friday Financial Tip #19: Receipts
In many countries, getting a receipt for small amounts of cash (taxis, vendors, etc.) is difficult because they do not have a receipt book available. Some of our missionaries have created their own blank receipt books and carry some receipts with them at all times. This allows the missionary to complete a receipt on behalf of the vendor and then simply have the vendor sign it.
Remember that every receipt must include these four things:
- Date
- Amount paid (converted to U.S. dollars if necessary)
- Purpose of expenditure
- Signature of recipient
Friday Financial Tip #18: Receipts for Ministry Expenses
Receipts are your physical proof that funds were used for a ministry expense. It is your responsibility to ensure that they provide that proof.
Every receipt must have four components:
- Date of transaction
- Amount of transaction
- Name of recipient
- Purpose for expenditure
It is always better to have too much information than not enough; i.e., rather than just writing “Food,” it would be better to write, “Groceries purchased for the Christmas dinner on our Big Day.”
A receipt can literally be written on a napkin as long as it has all four of the above-mentioned items, but the more professionally you handle these matters, the better it will be for you should you ever be questioned.
It may be helpful to buy a standard receipt book and carry some receipts with you. It may even be a good idea to have receipts preprinted to fit your particular situation.
Friday Financial Tip #17: Missions University
During Missions University, we are planning to hear from accountant Josh Belk. Bro. Belk is the leader of Lodestar Tax & Consulting of St. John, Indiana. He and his coworkers are especially experienced and knowledgeable in areas with special significance to FBMI missionaries: Clergy Tax Law and Accountable Reimbursement Plans. Many of our missionaries depend on his firm for their accounting needs.
Josh Belk will be teaching a lesson that will be especially helpful to FBMI missionaries. To ensure the greatest level of help to all of our missionaries, we plan to record this lesson and share the video after Missions University.
Friday Financial Tip #16: Health Insurance
Health insurance and related benefits like vision and dental plans are often offered by employers to their employees. Employees are able to pay the premiums for these employer-provided benefits as pre-tax deductions from their gross income. If an employee decides to purchase additional insurance not offered through his employer, he would, of course, pay any additional insurance premiums with money that was already subject to taxes.
In a similar way, our Benefits Office offers the healthcare sharing ministry, as well as vision, dental, life insurance, and other benefits, to FBMI missionaries. The premiums for all of these options are able to be pre-tax deductions from a missionary’s support. Any additional insurance purchased is paid using the personal portion of a missionary’s support and is not able to be reimbursed using the Accountable Reimbursement Plan or the EOM report.
Thank you so much for your time! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We love you, and we enjoy serving with you.
Friday Financial Tip #15: Per Diem
According to the IRS, “Per diem is an allowance paid to your employees for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses incurred when traveling. This allowance is in lieu of paying their actual travel expenses.” This explains why missionaries are able to request allowances to be designated as travel expenses via our EOM report. Deputation missionaries especially benefit from this system, as they are often traveling for ministry. Correctly designating per diem travel amounts on the EOM allows a missionary to increase their legally non-taxable ministry expenses. “Per diem payments are not part of the employee’s wages if the payment is equal to or less than the federal per diem rate and the employer receives an expense report from the employee.” For per diem, the expense report must include the business purpose of the trip and the date and place of the trip. Although you should save all receipts for ministry expenses, you are not required to send receipts for your per diem allowances claimed on the EOM Report. These rates are determined by the U.S. General Services Administration. Current rates can be found here: Per diem rates | GSA.
Please bear in mind these important things when claiming per diem travel expenses:
1. Only ministry-related travel is claimable through the Accountable Reimbursement Plan. No personal travel can be included.
2. Travel must be away from your tax home, which is generally the place that you live.
3. On the first and last day of travel, a missionary can only claim 75% of the federal per diem rates.
For more information, feel free to read the IRS documentation: About Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses | Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov). Please reach out to your Field Service Coordinator with any questions. Thank you!
Friday Financial Tip #14: Medical Sharing Benefits
Dear Friend,
We are pleased to be able to partner with the Benefits Office of First Baptist Church to provide a Medical Sharing Ministry option to you. For those of you who are participants in this plan, we wanted to let you know about an upcoming share increase. This is the first increase since 2019.
Please see the chart below for the details of this increase:
Household Current Shares Shares as of July 1
Single $227.00 $250.00
Couple $454.00 $500.00
Family $530.00 $580.00
Thank you for your service for the Lord Jesus Christ. Please let us know if you have any questions!
Friday Financial Tip #13: Tithes and Offerings
Whenever you give tithes or offerings to a registered non-profit, you should receive a contribution statement at the end of the calendar year. This statement should then be used to claim your charitable donations when filing your taxes.
If you give tithes or offerings to an individual or to a non-registered entity, you will not be able to claim those donations when filing your taxes.
Tithes and offerings may not be claimed as a ministry expense on your EOM form.
Friday Financial Tip #12: Postage Increase
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is implementing a price increase for mailing services. Starting July 14, 2024, the new rates will take effect. The price of a first-class mail Forever stamp will increase by 5 cents, from 68 cents to 73 cents. This will affect our prayer letter mailing service.
This may be a good time for you to change from mailing your prayer letters to churches to emailing a PDF, if possible.