Offering for Members in Need

Question: How do we treat an offering taken for a member in need? For example a church member is hospitalized a church department decides to take up an offering for them. Are there any tax rules or procedures we should consider when receiving an offering for an individual?

Answer: Amounts collected for a specific individual are not tax deductible. Period. That is determined by the IRS. Giving deductible credit for such gifts will get your non-profit status revoked…for Foursquare churches that means you get the non-profit status revoked for the entire denomination since we are all one entity. Do NOT do this…Do NOT provide charitable credit for amounts directed to an individual.

Offerings can be taken specifically for individuals but without giving the donor charitable (tax-deductible) credit.

Tax deductible offerings can be taken for benevolence situations. Any benevolence amounts paid on behalf of individuals should be paid directly to vendors and it should be done consistently with your church policy for all cases. If announcements are warranted or necessary, they should be described in summary terms without associating names or individuals. An example would be: “The church has become aware of a situation that it would like to help. The dad is in the hospital and we would like to help offset some bills. If you would help please put mark the gift as benevolence.”