Bivocational Pastor

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MZBCSpartanburg
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:10 pm

Bivocational Pastor

Post by MZBCSpartanburg »

Our pastor is bivocational within the church. He is both the senior pastor and the music minister. We have his salary set up correctly in the payroll system, but he has requested his information be broken out so that it is easier to do his taxes. Is there a standard or best practice way to handle this? I would prefer not to have to set him up twice in the system and cut 2 checks each week in order to create 2 W2 forms. Can I manually break out the 2 jobs onto 2 W2 forms at year end? All help appreciated. Thank you!

NeilZ
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Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
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Re: Bivocational Pastor

Post by NeilZ »

MZBCSpartanburg wrote:
Fri Nov 19, 2021 12:40 pm
Our pastor is bivocational within the church. He is both the senior pastor and the music minister. We have his salary set up correctly in the payroll system, but he has requested his information be broken out so that it is easier to do his taxes. Is there a standard or best practice way to handle this? I would prefer not to have to set him up twice in the system and cut 2 checks each week in order to create 2 W2 forms. Can I manually break out the 2 jobs onto 2 W2 forms at year end? All help appreciated. Thank you!
Unfortunately, there's no way you can break out the positions to do the W2. The music position is not a 'self-employed' position for SECA (i'm assuming) which is probably why he wants to break it down for taxes.

If you could convince the pastor to have the music position paid monthly, this would alleviate your printing 2 checks every week. Without knowing more about the tax situation the easiest method is to split out the music position and issue 2 checks.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

MZBCSpartanburg
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:10 pm

Re: Bivocational Pastor

Post by MZBCSpartanburg »

Thank you for your reply!

As far as the W2 form this year, do you know if I can go in at year end and manually add a second W2 and adjust the numbers to create 2 forms? Or will the system stop me from doing that? I wouldn't want to do anything to compromise the electronic transmittal of the data since we just got that set up.

NeilZ
Posts: 10209
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
Contact:

Re: Bivocational Pastor

Post by NeilZ »

MZBCSpartanburg wrote:
Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:15 am
Thank you for your reply!

As far as the W2 form this year, do you know if I can go in at year end and manually add a second W2 and adjust the numbers to create 2 forms? Or will the system stop me from doing that? I wouldn't want to do anything to compromise the electronic transmittal of the data since we just got that set up.
Changing the source data of the W2 after you've already electronically sent the data may actually cause audit issues if the IRS decides to audit the pastor. Unless you decide not to electronically transmit, and do everything by paper, I wouldn't touch it.

That said, I would definitely get in touch with an accountant on this since you're heading into unfamiliar territory here.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

MZBCSpartanburg
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:10 pm

Re: Bivocational Pastor

Post by MZBCSpartanburg »

Can I change it before I electronically submitted it? When I go into Accounting - Payroll - Tax Reporting - W2s, it gives me the option to add a W2 and it also allows for some data to be changed. Can I do this before electronically submitting? Therefore manually creating 2 W2 forms?

My plan is to correct this as you suggested going forward. I am just trying to explore all my options for this year to supply him with W2 generated from the system if possible. I really appreciate your time.

NeilZ
Posts: 10209
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
Contact:

Re: Bivocational Pastor

Post by NeilZ »

MZBCSpartanburg wrote:
Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:29 pm
Can I change it before I electronically submitted it? When I go into Accounting - Payroll - Tax Reporting - W2s, it gives me the option to add a W2 and it also allows for some data to be changed. Can I do this before electronically submitting? Therefore manually creating 2 W2 forms?

My plan is to correct this as you suggested going forward. I am just trying to explore all my options for this year to supply him with W2 generated from the system if possible. I really appreciate your time.
You 'CAN' add the W2 manually to the system, adjust the numbers for the pastor position, and create the one for the music.

However, I've not used the electronic W2 submission since I have always had less than 6 employees, and I found that manually entering the data at the Social Security site and state tax sites was easier than trying to set that up (cheaper too).

That said, I would think that the added and changed data would be properly sent electronically.

As usual, I strongly advise doing a backup of the Accounting database so you can easily revert back if you encounter issues.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

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