Is there any paperwork burden from ministry outside the U.S.?

The headline of a great article, Foreign Payees, Activities, and Financial Accounts Increase Your Compliance Burden, points towards an answer of yes.

CPAs Daniel Skerbitz and Laurie Gnad, of Stanfield & O’Dell, provide a great introduction to the extra reporting paperwork that arises for overseas missions or even dealing with foreign missionaries when they are in the U.S.

The article can be found at the NACBA website here on pages 18 through 21. (This is the location of the sample copy of the Summer 2011 magazine, so I am guessing the article will disappear when the next quarterly magazine is printed. If that is the case, try searching online for the article by full title.)

A few topics discussed by Mr. Skerbitz and Ms. Gnad:

  • Withholding requirements when you pay a foreign minister or missionary who speaks in your church.
  • Reporting requirements if you make payments to a non-U.S. citizen
  • Possibility of reimbursement for travel expenses not been subject to withholding if it is under an accountable expense reimbursement plan
  • Requirement to know your payee under the counterterrorism laws and regulations
  • Complications in the 990 reporting from making grants to foreign persons
  • Requirement to report overseas financial accounts, whether as an owner or someone who has signing authority on the account.

I have discussed the reporting requirement for overseas bank accounts here.

As you can tell merely from the topics mentioned above, you quickly take on a lot of paperwork requirements when you move into overseas missions work. Check out the article to start learning about what is involved.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *