Qualified Services

Qualified services, in general, are the services you perform in the exercise of your ministry or in the exercise of your duties as required by your religious order. Income you receive for performing qualified services is subject to SE tax unless you have an exemption as explained earlier. If you have an exemption, only the income you receive for performing qualified services is exempt. The exemption does not apply to any other SE income.

The following discussions provide more detailed information on qualified services of ministers, and members of religious orders, and Christian Science practitioners and readers.

Ministers

Most services you perform as a minister, priest, rabbi, etc., are qualified services. These services include:

• Performing sacerdotal functions,
• Conducting religious worship, and
• Controlling, conducting, and maintaining religious organizations, boards, societies, and other integral agencies that are under the authority of a religious body that is a church or denomination.

You are considered to control, conduct, and maintain a religious organization if you direct, manage, or promote the organization's activities.

A religious organization is under the authority of a religious body that is a church or denomination if it is organized for and dedicated to carrying out the principles of a faith according to the requirements governing the creation of institutions of the faith.

Services for nonreligious organizations. Your services for a nonreligious organization are qualified services if the services are assigned or designated by your church. Assigned or designated services qualify even if they do not involve performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship.

If your services are not assigned or designated by your church, they are qualified services only if they involve performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship.

Services that are not part of your ministry. Income from services that are not qualified services is generally subject to social security tax withholding (not self-employment tax) under the rules that apply to workers in general. The following are not qualified services.

• Services you perform for nonreligious organizations other than the services stated earlier.
• Services you perform as a duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister of a church as an employee of the United States, the District of Columbia, a foreign government, or any of their political subdivisions. This is true even if you are performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship. (For example, if you perform services as a chaplain in the Armed Forces of the United States, the services are not qualified services.)
• Services you perform in a government-owned and operated hospital. (These services are considered performed by a government employee, not by a minister as part of the ministry.) However, services that you perform at a church-related hospital or health and welfare institution, or a private nonprofit hospital, are considered to be part of the ministry and are considered qualified services.

Books or articles. Writing religious books or articles is considered to be in the exercise of your ministry and is considered qualified services.

This rule also applies to members of religious orders and to Christian Science practitioners.

Members of Religious Orders

Services you perform as a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by the order are qualified services. The services are qualified because you perform them as an agent of the order.

For example, if you are directed to perform services for another agency of the supervising church or an associated institution, you are considered to perform the services as an agent of the order.

However, if you are directed to work outside the order, the employment will not be considered a duty required by the order unless:

• Your services are the kind that are ordinarily performed by members of the order, and
• Your services are part of the duties that must be exercised for, or on behalf of, the religious order as its agent.

Effect of employee status. Ordinarily, if your services are not considered directed or required of you by the order, you and the outside party for whom you work are considered employee and employer. In this case, your earnings from the services are taxed under the rules that apply to workers in general, not under the rules for services provided as agent for the order. This is true even if you have taken a vow of poverty.

Example. Mark Brown and Elizabeth Green are members of a religious order and have taken vows of poverty. They renounce all claims to their earnings. The earnings belong to the order.

Mark is a licensed attorney. The superiors of the order instructed him to get a job with a law firm. Mark joined a law firm as an employee and, as he requested, the firm made the salary payments directly to the order.

Elizabeth is a secretary. The superiors of the order instructed her to accept a job with the business office of the church that supervises the order. Elizabeth took the job and gave all her earnings to the order.

Mark's services are not duties required by the order. His earnings are subject to social security and Medicare tax under FICA and Federal income tax.

Elizabeth's services are considered duties required by the order. She is acting as an agent of the order and not as an employee of a third party. She does not include the earnings in gross income, and they are not subject to income tax withholding, social security and Medicare tax, or SE tax.

Christian Science Practitioners and Readers

The exemption from SE tax, discussed earlier, applies only to the services a Christian Science practitioner or reader performs in the exercise of that profession. If you do not have an exemption, amounts you receive for performing these qualified services are subject to SE tax.

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