You know that you need to take control of your personal finances, but the task seems so overwhelming that you’re not sure where to start.  Or maybe you’ve been focusing on one aspect of your finances, but you’re concerned that other issues may be falling through the cracks.

If these concerns sound familiar, consider participating in Ernst & Young’s free personal finance webinar.  This informative presentation will provide strategies you can use to develop a sound financial plan for the future.  And if you’ve already started developing a plan, the webinar can help you identify aspects of your finances that may need some fine-tuning.

The webinar will be held on:

• Wednesday, July 21 , 2010, 11:00-11:45 a.m., Eastern time; and
• Thursday, August 12, 3:00-3:45 p.m., Eastern time

Both sessions will cover the same information, so choose the one that suits your schedule.  Learn more about the webinar and register for it at www.gbophb-schedule.com.

The 2011 apportionment reports have been printed and were mailed from the Conference Treasurer’s Office today, July 16, 2010. These were sent to the pastor’s preferred mailing address. Keep an eye out for these envelopes next week, and let our office know if you do not receive your packet within a week or two. Please take the time to carefully review your reports, especially Table II, and let us know as soon as possible about any corrections that may be needed. The thank-you certificates for those churches that paid 100% of their 2009 apportionments will be sent in a separate mailing this year, hopefully within the next two weeks.

Pledge forms relating to the Central Conference Pension Initiative (CCPI) have been added to our Downloads page. The CCPI Commitment Form is for pastors wishing to make a pledge to the fund-raising efforts. Pastors can turn these forms into their District Office, or mail them directly to the Treasurer’s Office. Payments on pledges should be sent through the lockbox in Charlotte for processing (PO Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260). The Church Estimate of Giving Form is for local churches wishing to make a pledge. Churches should bring their pledge forms and/or donations to annual conference to be given during the Thursday offering.

Serving as a financial officer or in a financially related position within a local church requires that we serve with fiduciary responsibility over the financial matters of the church. This fiduciary responsibility means that we stand in service to perform our duties with the trust and confidence that we act for the benefit of the church and not for the benefit or convenience of ourselves. As we serve with these responsibilities in local churches, we are guided to provide the most effective and most efficient ways to safeguard the assets entrusted to our care. One of the ways we safeguard the assets is to put procedures in place that have been proven to minimize risks by preventing and detecting error, deterring fraud and protecting innocent staff and volunteers.

Guidelines have been developed to assist those with financial responsibilities in local churches to identify and implement basic internal control procedures. Read more »

Questions have been posed frequently from certified public accountants in North Carolina who have been asked by local churches to assist with annual audits or evaluations on church financial records and internal control policies. Since evaluations done according to the procedures in the Local Church Audit Guide are not in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, CPAs have been concerned with participating in the evaluations and what that may mean to their relationship with the state board. We posed the question Read more »

The 2010 remittance reports are now available on the District Remittances page of the Treasurer’s Office website. Churches can also view their individual statements by logging on to the Online Data Collection System and clicking on the Statements menu. These reports will be updated weekly throughout the year.

People who give to charities providing earthquake relief in Haiti can claim these donations on the tax return they are completing this season, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayers who itemize deductions on their 2009 return qualify for this special tax relief provision, enacted Jan. 22. Only cash contributions made to these charities after Jan. 11, 2010, and before March 1, 2010, are eligible. This includes contributions made by text message, check, credit card or debit card. The new law only applies to cash (as opposed to property) contributions. The contributions must be made specifically for the relief of victims in areas affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. Taxpayers have the option of deducting these contributions on either their 2009 or 2010 returns, but not both.

A video of the Local Church Treasurer and Finance Committee training event that was held on December 5, 2009 is available on the Conference website in the Video Room. The handouts to follow the presentation are available in the Training Materials section of the Treasurer’s Office website. The training event covered fraud survey findings and local church minimum internal control recommendations in the first section as shown in Part 1 of the training video. The second part of the video contains stewardship best practices and questions and answers.

Local churches and pastors are reminded that clergy compensation should be reported by the local church to the pastor on a W-2 form on or before January 31. In general, non-employees providing miscellaneous services to the church should receive a 1099-MISC reporting payments if payments are equal to or exceed $600 for 2009 by January 31. Instructions for completing a W-2 for clergy and information on the differences in employees and contractors can be found on our Training Materials page. Instructions for completing a 1099 form can be found on the IRS website.

Local church pastors and trustees are reminded to consider Worker’s Compensation coverage as local church property and liability insurance needs are evaluated. Churches are required by NC law to have coverage if there are three or more regular employees (full or part-time). The NC Conference recommends coverage for all churches regardless of the number of employees. The Conference does not maintain a group policy for this as each church is an individual salary-paying unit. Your health insurance provider will not pay medical claims resulting from a work injury and the church and employee will be responsible. Please see a memo on this topic on the Treasurer’s Office Training Materials website for more information. Group discounts may be available for NC Conference churches for worker’s compensation coverage through the NCC PACT insurance program. Please contact the Treasurer’s Office at nccpact@nccumc.org to request a quote for your church on this important coverage.

Effective January 1, 2010, the business mileage rate will be reduced to 50 cents per mile. The new rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will be reduced to 16.5 cents per mile. The rate for providing services for charitable organizations is set by statute, not the IRS, and remains at 14 cents per mile. The mileage rates for 2010 reflect generally lower transportation costs compared to a year ago. The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile. See news release IR-2009-111 for more details.

Effective January 1, 2010, all congregations with pastors living in church-owned parsonages are asked to begin paying utilities for the parsonage directly to the utility company instead of through cash allowances to the pastor.  Guidance on the details of doing this, including who this applies to, amounts, utility categories, etc., can be found on the Downloads page.  If you have further questions, please contact your district superintendent for clarification.

We are happy to offer training materials from the Local Church Treasurer and Finance Committee Training session on-line. Please visit the Training Materials page, and feel free to email our Help Desk with questions or suggestions.

Visit the NCC Builds web page to view the project development timeline on the construction of the new NC Conference headquarters from start to finish.

The 2008 Annual Conference approved the construction of a new conference headquarters in Greenfield Park in Garner. Share with the team your thoughts and experiences related to the project. Visit the NCC Builds web page for details.

The NC Conference offers insurance through the United Methodist Property and Casualty Trust (PACT). PACT is an all-lines (including Worker’s Compensation) nonprofit insurance trust that is owned by its member United Methodist annual conferences, agencies and local churches. For more information on PACT, please contact the Conference Treasurer’s Office at (800) 849-4433. Click here to learn more about NC Conference PACT.

Please email any questions to nccpact@nccumc.org.

An email discussion group is in place for those interested in local church finance to enable you to discuss issues facing you with your peers at other local churches. This list was requested by local church treasurers because of the need for an easy way to ask each other questions about local church policy and procedures, accounting software, auditing issues, etc. To join the discussion group, click on the following link: http://listserv.nccumc.org/mailman/listinfo/lcfinance.

With the focus on political elections, churches are reminded that organizations exempt from income tax under the Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) may not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office. The Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Ruling 2007-41 to provide guidance on situations that may or may not be considered to fall under these guidelines. If your church has involvement in election matters or activities, you are encouraged to read the situations listed in the Revenue Ruling to make sure your involvement is not in violation of the guidelines. The Revenue Ruling can be found on the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-07-41.pdf.