| Why are they living like royalty tax free ? |
| I have a huge issue with this and it’s the main reason I stopped going to church. I hated the hypocrisy among the church leaders. |
| Wat? Pastor incomes are taxable like anyone else’s. |
| Joel Olsteen makes all his money from his books. |
Pastors can opt out of social security if they file a form that they are opposed to government benefits. (Or something like that—my pastor husband doesn’t opt out so I’m not exactly sure the rationale needed.) They also get a housing allowance that is not taxed (but is subject to social security unless opted out). This is an amount designated in advance, in writing (like a contract or meeting minutes) and is for actual expenses. We need to calculate at the end of the year and pay tax on anything we didn’t “use.” |
| Is this a common thing? My pastor drives an old pickup and shops at Walmart. |
It’s a handful of the big televangelists who live large. Most are scraping by like your pastor. |
PP from above. Famous pastors are mostly getting by from book and other publishing deals. They are probably compensated from their churches but that’s not what’s making them wealthy. We aren’t scraping by, but any “living large” we are doing is because of my income, not my husband’s. |
Jerry Fawell Joel Osteen And all the other shots if they are not grifting they are molesting Where have you been under a rock? |
We hear about the rich pastors of mega-churches, but most pastors are not wealthy, as is the case for church workers in general. |
Yeah but this thread is not about them, obviously. |
| The Righteous Gemstones! |
If all of that cash wasn’t vacuumed up by the large churches then the smaller churches wouldn’t be so broke. Christians must not care enough to do anything about that though. |
As a PP said, Olsteen makes his money from books. |
| There are a lot of tax benefits/writeoffs for clergy people. A friend is a rabbi and was telling me about it. I can't remember exactly. |