Within the halls of both Houses of Congress in our Nation’s Capital are lobbyists who are busily attempting to influence the House and Senate in favor of their clients. This has been part of the political process for years. Although we do not have a professional lobbyist in Washington, D.C. we work diligently with representatives, doing everything within our power, to ensure that there is a voice for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is evident by two programs that have been put on the back burner that would have negatively affected the Church and local Pastor. The first is that of requiring Social Security Numbers for tax donation credit. Although the IRS still has plans to implement this fully, due to diligent efforts we have been able to get them to list this program as only voluntary. This has bought the Churches some time to implement strategies to prevent any reduction in charitable giving when the IRS does initiate a full-blown SSAN demand for tax deductible charitable gifts. The second victory for us is the decision to keep the Social Security wage base unchanged for 2016. This will possibly change in 2017 and it is huge. The plans to increase Social Security to 19.6% may likely be implemented in this coming year. If so, it will be devastating for Pastors and Ministers who have not opted out of Social Security Retirement. For Pastors and Ministers who remain in the Social Security Retirement System this is the equivalent of a 5% pay decrease for 2017. These are just two of the many areas that we took to task for Pastors, Ministers, and Churches across America. |
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September 2020
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