The Board of Directors of Faith & Learning International recognizes that certain expenses of ministry paid by the project director/contractor are part of the ordinary and necessary costs of ministry. Income tax regulations provide that an arrangement between a contractor and organization must meet the requirements of ministry connection, and substantiation, in order to be considered a reimbursement. Accordingly, we hereby establish an Accountable Expense Reimbursement Policy, as defined below, in accordance with Internal Revenue Code and Federal Tax Regulations.
Projects (1099 contractors) serving Faith & Learning International may receive reimbursement of ministry expenses for the precise amount of such expenses if:
1) There is a stated and substantiated ministry purpose of the expense related to the project of Faith & Learning International and the expenses would qualify for deductions for federal income tax purposes if the expenses were not reimbursed;
2) The employee provides adequate substantiation to Faith & Learning International for all expenses;
3) The employee submits, in a reasonable period of time, an adequate account of these expenses
A “reasonable period of time” is defined, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service guidelines, as
“Expenses are adequately accounted for within 60 days after they are incurred.”
The substantiation of ministry purpose, for precise reimbursement, must include:
- Ministry purpose
- Ministry relationship (names of persons present at meal or meeting)
- Actual Cost (include receipt for all items)
- Date
- Place or location
Faith & Learning International will retain the original copies related the substantiation of ministry purpose.
Mileage Reimbursement Rates for ministry, medical or moving mileage are to be at or below the annually published IRS mileage rates. The standard will be to set the Mileage Reimbursement Rates at the annually published IRS mileage rate. Rates set below the IRS mileage rates are to be approved by the Project Director and the President of Faith & Learning International.
FLI will allow for individuals to be reimbursed up to $100 per person per month against their cellular bill (invoice or receipt still required). The bill can include charges for cell service & data and/or new devices.
To be clear, FLI will not reimburse for new phones bought outright in full. We apologize but we can not accommodate those requests as it would require FLI to govern how often upgrades are permitted. It would also require a ‘buy-back’ should the director ever leave FLI before the useful life of the phone expires. Due to our fiscal sponsor structure we are not built to standardize policies in either of those realms.
As you may know the IRS and ECFA hold cell phone use in a middle ground between personal and ministry expenses. The spirit of this particular reimbursement plan is to subsidize the ministry portion of your cell phone use with the assumption that everyone would own a smartphone even if they were not involved in ministry. We understand that our projects use their phones at different rates and we do not plan to manage the percent breakdown for each director’s phone. Thus we hope the standard $100 max makes sense given the diversity and autonomy of our projects.
If funds are not available at the time the expenses are submitted, expense reports will be held for no more than 90 days. At the end of 90 days from the submission date, the expenses will no longer be eligible for reimbursement.