Ministerial Services(p4)

Ministerial service, in general, is the service you perform in the exercise of your ministry, in the exercise of your duties as required by your religious order, or in the exercise of your profession as a Christian Science practitioner or reader. Income you receive for performing ministerial services is subject to SE tax unless you have an exemption as explained later. Even if you have an exemption, only the income you receive for performing ministerial services is exempt. The exemption does not apply to any other income.

The following discussions provide more detailed information on ministerial services of ministers, members of a religious order, and Christian Science practitioners and readers.

Most services you perform as a minister, priest, rabbi, etc., are ministerial services. These services include:

• Performing sacerdotal functions,
• Conducting religious worship, and
• Controlling, conducting, and maintaining religious organizations (including the religious boards, societies, and other integral agencies of such organizations) that are under the authority of a religious body that is a church or denomination.

You are considered to control, conduct, and maintain a religious organization if you direct, manage, or promote the organization's activities.

A religious organization is under the authority of a religious body that is a church or denomination if it is organized for and dedicated to carrying out the principles of a faith according to the requirements governing the creation of institutions of the faith.

Your services for a nonreligious organization are ministerial services if the services are assigned or designated by your church. Assigned or designated services qualify even if they do not involve performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship.

If your services are not assigned or designated by your church, they are ministerial services only if they involve performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship.

Income from services you perform as an employee that are not ministerial services is subject to social security and Medicare tax withholding (not self-employment tax) under the rules that apply to employees in general. The following are not ministerial services.

• Services you perform for nonreligious organizations other than the services stated above.
• Services you perform as a duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church as an employee of the United States, the District of Columbia, a foreign government, or any of their political subdivisions. This is true even if you are performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship. (For example, if you perform services as a chaplain in the Armed Forces of the United States, those services are not ministerial services.)
• Services you perform in a government- owned and operated hospital. (These services are considered performed by a government employee, not by a minister as part of the ministry.) However, services that you perform at a church-related hospital or health and welfare institution, or a private nonprofit hospital, are considered to be part of the ministry and are considered ministerial services.

Writing religious books or articles is considered to be in the exercise of your ministry and is considered a ministerial service.

This rule also applies to members of religious orders and to Christian Science practitioners and readers.

Services you perform as a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by the order are ministerial services. The services are considered ministerial because you perform them as an agent of the order.

For example, if you are directed to perform services for another agency of the supervising church or an associated institution, you are considered to perform the services as an agent of the order.

However, if you are directed to work outside the order, the employment will not be considered a duty required by the order unless:

• Your services are the kind that are ordinarily performed by members of the order, and
• Your services are part of the duties that must be exercised for, or on behalf of, the religious order as its agent.

Ordinarily, if your services are not considered directed or required of you by the order, you and the outside party for whom you work are considered employee and employer. In this case, your earnings from the services are taxed under the rules that apply to employees in general, not under the rules for services provided as agent for the order. This is true even if you have taken a vow of poverty.

Pat Brown and Chris Green are members of a religious order and have taken vows of poverty. They renounce all claims to their earnings. The earnings belong to the order.

Pat is a licensed attorney. The superiors of the order instructed her to get a job with a law firm. Pat joined a law firm as an employee and, as she requested, the firm made the salary payments directly to the order.

Chris is a secretary. The superiors of the order instructed him to accept a job with the business office of the church that supervises the order. Chris took the job and gave all his earnings to the order.

Pat's services are not duties required by the order. Her earnings are subject to social security and Medicare tax under FICA and to federal income tax.

Chris' services are considered duties required by the order. He is acting as an agent of the order and not as an employee of a third party. He does not include the earnings in gross income, and they are not subject to income tax withholding, social security and Medicare tax, or SE tax.

The exemption from SE tax, discussed later, applies only to the services a Christian Science practitioner or reader performs in the exercise of his or her profession. If you do not have an exemption, amounts you receive for performing these ministerial services are subject to SE tax.