By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
Like anything on this blog, take what you find useful and leave the rest. If you are not religious or not Christian, you may find the subject of tithing and how much you should do it fascinating. You may find it boring or even silly. If so, feel free to browse on over to another post. Try to resist making snide remarks in the comment section.
Jewish people have something similar to tithing called Tzedakah, but this is more of an optional charitable donation rather than any sort of a strict tithing code that requires the calculation of a percentage of income. Or perhaps you are Christian but view tithing simply as any money donated to your church or, perhaps, just to charity in general. Still, others view it as an Old Testament law that was superseded by a higher law after the coming of Jesus Christ. Again, these folks will not find the majority of this post useful. In fact, they'll likely find it pharisaical and legalistic.
This post isn't for them. It is written for those belonging to denominations that have a relatively strict definition of tithing. Muslims may find some of this useful, as one of the five pillars of Islam is Zakat, which is giving 2.5% to charity. However, Zakat is 2.5% of wealth above a minimum (but a controversial amount) known as Nisab. It is not given to a mosque but directly to the poor or indirectly to the poor through a Zakat collector.
Read on to learn more about tithing and what approach you could take.
What Is Tithing?
Tithing is defined simply as “one-tenth,” and the idea behind it is that faithful Christians pay 1/10th of their income to God via His church. Simple enough, right? Five-year-olds in Sunday School can quickly grasp the concept that if they are given 10 pennies, they should give one back to God since He provided all 10 of them. Perhaps the most famous verses of scripture about tithing are found in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.”
While tithing is used for the work of the church, the reason it is paid is not necessarily to further the work of the church. It's simply because a believer is commanded to do so. Not only will the believer be blessed for doing so, but the tithe-payer will better remember the role of money in their life, keep it in its proper place, and develop a stewardship mentality.
However, once you start spending a lot of time thinking about tithing and/or trying to calculate out 10% of your income, you quickly realize this is not nearly as simple as it seemed back in Sunday School. Which brings us to the first and most important principle about calculating your “tithing bill.”
How Much You Should Tithe? It Should Be Between You and God.
That's right. If you're unsure what to do, pray about it, decide between you and God what is reasonable, and pay that. I'm serious. This is the most important principle. Reasonable people can disagree on every other recommendation in this post. If you do disagree, come back to this one and do whatever you think and feel is best. Now, let's go down the rabbit hole. With each topic, I'll explain the dilemma and provide my recommendation.
Tithe on Gross or Net? How to Calculate Tithe.
Perhaps the most common discussion about tithing—and about as deep as any Sunday School discussion ever goes—is whether you should pay tithe before or after taxes. Your gross income or your net income? It's a serious question, so we can simply dismiss simplistic sayings such as, “Do you want gross blessings or net blessings?” If your effective tax rate is 33%, 10% of your gross income is 15% of your net income. That's a substantial difference.
We can start with the position that one should pay on gross income. The argument is that you receive something in exchange for the taxes you pay. You get a military and cops and roads and schools. However, a reasonable counterargument is that a higher earner should only pay on some portion of that, since we all use the military and cops and roads pretty equally. Perhaps that high earner should only pay tithing on part of those taxes paid. For example, the average American tax bill is about $15,000, and the median tax bill is significantly lower. Maybe one should only pay tithing on the first $15,000 of taxes paid each year. However, does that mean a low earner needs to pay extra tithing for their share of the average tax bill? That seems kind of tough.
Or imagine you live in a country with much higher effective tax rates. Maybe it's fine to pay on gross in the US, where the effective tax rate averages about 22%. But what about in Sweden, where it averages 57%? Now 10% of gross equals 23% of net.
By the way, if you pay on net, remember to pay on your tax refund!
Personally, my take is that it's best to pay on gross income, but I admit I don't feel particularly strongly about it. You want to pay on net? Knock yourself out.
Payroll Taxes
There is more to taxes than just your income taxes. What about those payroll taxes like Social Security and Medicare? I think it's fine to go either way on these; you just need to stay consistent. If you want to pay tithing on taxes paid, then I wouldn't pay tithing on benefits received down the road from Social Security or Medicare. If you decide to exclude Social Security and Medicare taxes from your income before you calculate your tithing bill, you should probably count any benefits received as income.
Note that the self-employed seemingly pay more in Social Security and Medicare taxes, since they pay both the employee and employer half of those taxes. Is an employee who doesn't add back in the employer half of those taxes to his or her income “cheating” on their tithing? I don't know, but again, I think it's best to remain consistent. If you didn't pay tithing on the employer half when you were an employee, then feel free not to pay it on the employer half once you are self-employed. Take a “tithing deduction” for that portion of your tax bill.
Personally, I find it easiest to pay on the amount paid in payroll taxes but plan not to pay later on benefits received. Those would be relatively easy to calculate for Social Security but very difficult to calculate for Medicare. I don't pay on the employer half of these taxes.
Employer Benefits
Payroll taxes aren't the only thing your employer is covering for you. For many employees, the employer also purchases insurance such as health, life, and disability insurance. Perhaps part of the premium is paid by the employee, deducted each month from their paychecks. Should they be paying tithing on the portion paid by the employer? If not, what about those who purchase health insurance on the open market or pay for it as an employer? Again, I recommend consistency. Most people start out life as an employee and don't pay tithing on any benefit paid for by the employer. Do the same thing once you are the employer. That means healthcare is generally paid for both pre-tax and pre-tithing. I can live with that. Likewise, if you aren't paying tithing on the premiums your employer pays for your life and disability, I would plan on paying tithing on those benefits should you ever receive them.
Life and Disability Insurance
Term life and individual disability insurance are generally paid for with post-tax dollars, and any benefits paid are also post-tax. I think that's a good rule to apply to your tithing too. Pay on the premiums but not on any disability benefits received. The term life decision will be on your heirs, of course. See the discussion about inheritances below.
Retirement Accounts
Next, we come to the subject of retirement accounts. If you put post-tithing money into retirement accounts and then try to pay tithing on any increase you get in those accounts, you will quickly find the tithing bill either eats up a huge chunk of your earned income as the accounts become larger and larger or it requires you to make periodic withdrawals from those accounts paying taxes at a high rate in addition to early withdrawal penalties. I think there are two reasonable approaches to this dilemma, and neither requires tithing calculations or payments on earnings in the account as it grows. Either pay tithing on the money when you put it in the account and then never again (kind of like a Roth IRA), or take a “tithing deduction” for money put into the account and simply pay tithing on the withdrawals from the account (like a tax-deferred 401(k)). I think the latter is the simpler and fairer way to do it, so that's what I do.
Health Savings Accounts
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can be treated similarly. There is an additional dilemma, though, since HSA withdrawals can only be taken without penalty if the money is spent on approved healthcare expenses. You cannot take out an extra 10% for tithing and expect the IRS to not require a penalty. However, since these withdrawals are likely a relatively small portion of your living expenses, I think it is much easier to pay tithing on them from another source of funds. Again, for me, money goes in pre-tithing and is tithed when it comes out.
529s and ESAs
A similar dilemma is faced with 529s and other educational accounts. One cannot take an extra 10% out for tithing without paying a penalty. However, I hope most can simply cover that additional 10% from their other sources of income. Alternatively, you can say the 529 is the kid's income, and they should pay the tithing on it. However, I think that's a much heavier lift for a college student to come up with $4,000 in tithing after making a $40,000 529 withdrawal for college tuition, room, and board. I think it's best to put in pre-tithed dollars and have the parents pay tithing on withdrawn money using other income.
The Taxable Account
The taxable account becomes more interesting still. In this case, I think it is easiest to pay tithing on the money before it goes in, just like you pay taxes. Now your basis is post-tithing money and you can calculate your tithing bill along with your tax bill. If the investments produce dividends, interest, rent, or capital gains distributions, then you pay tithing on them as you pay taxes on them. That still leaves some dilemmas, however.
For example, is depreciation real or not? Should you get a tithing deduction on depreciation? Should you then pay tithing on depreciation recapture? Or should you ignore both when calculating your tithing (which is what I do)?
How about capital losses? Should you get a tithing deduction for those? If you are going to pay on capital gains, then I think it is only reasonable that you take a tithing deduction for capital losses.
Speaking of capital gains, just because the IRS makes you pay taxes on capital gains attributable solely to inflation doesn't mean that God does. Maybe you should subtract out the portion of the gain attributable to inflation before calculating your tithing. If you want to do that, then you'll need a fair measurement of inflation. Lots of people feel the federal government's Consumer Price Index (CPI) understates inflation. What measurement will you use? Personally, I do make that adjustment and simply use the CPI-U measurement of inflation over the time I owned the investment.
Donor Advised Funds, Charitable Trusts, and Private Foundations
What if you donate appreciated shares to a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), charitable trust, or private foundation? Should you pay tithing on the increase in value of the shares even though you didn't have to pay taxes on it? I think you should.
What about any increase in value that occurs within the DAF, trust, or foundation? Is it still your money, or have you given it away? Does that change if you want to pay your tithing with a donation from the DAF or foundation? In my opinion, you've given it away so you should no longer pay tithing on any gains or take any tithing deductions on any losses. If that's the case, it probably also means you can't get out of your tithing obligation the rest of your life simply by donating from the foundation you control. However, if your DAF is simply your conduit to pay the tithing, I think that's fine.
Trusts, Corporations, and LLCs
A revocable trust is basically still your money. You should probably still pay tithing on any income you get from there. However, with an irrevocable trust, the money is no longer yours. I would argue you are no longer responsible for paying tithing on it. I would argue tithing is a personal commandment and doesn't apply to entities like corporations or trusts. When you take a salary or distribution from a corporation or other business, then you should pay tithing on it. But if you're reinvesting in the business, I would argue that money should not be tithed, even if it is a pass-thru business (sole proprietorship, partnerships, S Corp) requiring you to pay tax on that reinvestment. You can pay tithing on it all when the business is sold. The recipient of the irrevocable trust should be responsible for paying tithing on those funds.
However, it gets even more complicated when YOU or YOUR SPOUSE is the beneficiary of the irrevocable trust. The first happens with a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT), and the second with a Spousal Limited Access Trust (SLAT).
If you put a valuable family business into the trust, do you get a “tithing credit” for its value? Do you take the “real value” or the appraisal done to show the IRS the business is not that valuable? If the trust is a grantor trust (meaning you are paying the taxes due on any assets in the trust), what do you pay tithing on? Do you pay tithing on all of the income in the trust? What about capital gains in the trust? What if that is more money than you even have outside the trust? How about if the trust bought your assets with a promissory note? Do you pay tithing on the income in the trust, the interest on the promissory note, or both? What if the promissory note is owned by another trust? Does it matter how much of the trust money you expect to use yourself, how much you expect your spouse to use, how much to go to heirs, and how much that goes to charity? I'll be honest, I'm still wrestling with this one.
Inheritances
What should you do with inherited money or assets? What if you would have to sell the family farm just to pay tithing on it? Does it make a difference if the person who gave it to you has already paid tithing on it? Do you get a step-up in tithing basis at death? All great questions; no definitive answers. It's certainly easiest to assume a step-up in basis at death. If you decide that you should pay tithing on it (and I'm not sure I've even decided what I would do in this situation), then I think it's also reasonable to wait until the assets are sold before paying tithing on them.
Gifts
What about gifts? Do you pay tithing on the birthday money you received as a kid? Does it make a difference if the gift is cash or a present? Does it matter if the person who gave it to you is a tithe-payer or not? Birthday money isn't much of a tithing bill, but what if your parents are gifting you $32,000 a year? Does that change things? How is that different from an inheritance? Personally, I ignore gifts for tithing purposes as long as the gifts are small. If they're large, I would treat them the same as you plan to treat any inheritance received.
Now, how about if you are the one on the giving end? Does it matter if the recipient is a tithe-payer or not? If you're putting money into a UTMA account for your kids each year, should you take a tithing deduction for that money? Personally, I think you should, but again, I think it's important for you to be consistent in your life. If you plan to pay on your own inheritance, then I think it's reasonable to take a deduction on your gifts and vice versa.
Stock Options
What if you are paid in stock options or directly in equity? Does it matter if they're incentive stock options or non-qualified stock options? What about profit interests? Should you pay when you receive them or exercise them? Personally, I think it's reasonable to not pay until you have cash in hand, just like you wouldn't pay until you sell a stock.
Charitable Donations
Do you get to take a tithing deduction (or even a credit) for money donated to charities other than the church? I would argue no; that those donations are on you.
Tithing Is Between You and God
I think you can now appreciate the wisdom of the first principle I put forward above—that how much you pay in tithing is between you and God. There is no “tithing code.” If there were, it would likely be just as long and complicated as the Internal Revenue Code! Your ecclesiastic leader may not even ask you if you are a “full-tithe payer.” If you feel right about what you've paid, then feel right about what you've paid.
How Often Should You Pay Tithe
I think most people grow up assuming they should pay tithing every time they are paid. That might mean 12-24 payments a year. But what if you have multiple streams of income? Are you really going to pay every couple of days? Seems really time-consuming. Certainly, people who struggle with budgeting should pay more frequently so they aren't tempted to spend their tithing money, but I don't believe God blesses you any more for paying 12 times a year than for paying once a year. You could pay at the beginning of the year or you could pay at the end of the year or you could pay once a quarter. All are fine. Personally, we've paid less and less frequently as time goes on. I think if you're paying less frequently than once a year, you probably need to reexamine this. But in my opinion anything up until that is probably fine.
I suppose someone could even make a reasonable argument that they're just going to leave their entire estate to the church and pay their tithing as their final bill. The heirs might not be too happy, and it might be that you end up paying just 5% or “overpaying” by paying 20%, 30%, or more of your lifetime income. I guess I wouldn't recommend that approach. It's supposed to be 10%; otherwise, it's just a crapshoot. It also seems to go against the spirit of the law if you're only paying using money you didn't need or want to spend as you went through life. In reality, you're paying it using your heirs' money.
How to Pay Tithing
Finally, we're left with the dilemma of how to actually pay tithing. Well, if you're going to pay it, you might as well maximize any tax benefit you may get from it. Tithing is generally tax-deductible for anyone who itemizes, as most churches are registered with the IRS as 501(c)(3) non-profits. If, like most people, you take the standard deduction, maybe don't worry too much about this. But some people who would take the standard deduction if they were to pay their tithing once a year might consider “bunching” their tithing. That is, paying double tithing every other year. You can pay for the previous year on January 1, then pay on December 31 for this year. You would itemize every other year. I doubt God cares that you paid one day late, but doing so may allow for a significantly lower overall tax bill.
The best way for retirees over 70 to donate to charity is to use Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs). This money comes directly out of your IRA or 401(k) to charity without being taxed by either. If you are 72+, the amount of the QCD is subtracted from your annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). This allows these retirees to still take the standardized deduction and avoid paying taxes on the money used to pay tithing.
If you're not yet retired, my favorite way to pay tithing is to transfer appreciated shares to the charity. If you itemize and have owned the shares for at least one year, you get to take a charitable deduction for the full value of the shares on the day of the donation. However, neither you nor the charity has to pay capital gains taxes on those appreciated shares. Combining these donations with tax-loss harvesting is a very powerful tax-saving technique that can allow you to basically never pay capital gains taxes.
Many churches, however, struggle with the receipt of appreciated shares. Not only can it be a hassle for you and them, but it also lets your fellow church members know about your financial status. If you prefer a bit more anonymity and less hassle, consider using a Donor Advised Fund. You can simply donate the appreciated shares to the DAF where they are sold for cash, and the charity receives a check. It's up to you whether you tell the charity if the money is from you.
How to Donate Appreciated Shares to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Without a DAF
I had a reader recently send me this step-by-step guide:
- Log in to Vanguard
- Search for the form “Give Shares or Securities to an Individual or Organization,” and open it
- Select “Complete online”
- Check box for “I Accept” and select “Continue”
- Check “Yes” when asked if you want to continue and click “Next”
- Select “Existing Vanguard nonretirement account”
- Click “This link” to continue with request
- Check “Yes” when asked if you want to continue and click “Next”
- Choose your account from the dropdown menu when asked to “Choose a nonretirement account to gift from;” then select “Next”
- If the information looks correct, select “Yes” and click “Next”
- Select which assets you wish to donate
- Are you gifting to a charity, click “Yes”
- Is your gift valued at over 1 million, click “No” (Not sure what happens if you click “Yes”)
- Name of individual trust or organization: Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Account number: 09889660840
- Review and submit
At this point, it will fill out a DocuSign document that you will need to e-sign, then you should be done. The Tax ID number is 23-7300405 if you need it.
I then send an email to [email protected] that reads something like this:
We made the following donations-in-kind through Vanguard:
8-20-2021 tax lot of VTSAX: 100 shares
10-18-2021 tax lot of VGSIX: 80 sharesWe have instructed that the shares be transferred to the church's account 09889660840. We would like it apportioned $1,200 to fast offering and the rest to tithing. Please send us a tax receipt, and inform us if anything else is required.
Thanks,
name
phone number
address
Ward, Stake
Tithing and Financial Planning
Want to go down the rabbit hole even more? Consider the effects of tithing on your financial decisions.
First, you'll have to make decisions about all of the factors above. Then, once you have done that, you may find that it changes how you live your financial life. Retirement accounts, HSAs, 529s, and UTMAs become even more attractive since you can fund them with pre-tithing dollars. Churning your taxable account becomes even more costly. If your heirs will take a step-up in basis on tithing, then there is even more incentive not to sell an asset prior to death. If you don't pay tithing on your health insurance, you're incentivized to have a more robust health insurance plan. It's like you're dealing with a 10% higher marginal tax rate, and that naturally affects everything. Maybe you work less or retire earlier than you otherwise would. Maybe you leave more money to heirs that don't pay tithing than those who do. Lots of complexities here.
If you belong to a denomination that follows a strict tithing code, I hope this post has been helpful to you. If you don't, I hope this has been at least somewhat enlightening as to the financial lives of a significant portion of the population around you.
What do you think? What tithing dilemmas did I miss? What have you decided to do about the dilemmas discussed in this post? Comment below!
Looks like you already got some flack on this post, but I wanna give you a kudos from me. Although I am not LDS, my wife is and tithing is important to her. I hear lots of different opinion on net vs gross and what should be paid on. I know it’s “not gospel,” but I think you addressed things very well from a practical standpoint.
I was really surprised I got so little flack on this post. I was expecting a storm.
quoting from Malachi 3: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
From a worldly perspective, this (prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it) makes no sense, but He is inviting us to test Him on the issue of blessings being poured out. In summary, it works.
Jim, relative to writing this article, quoting Matthew 25:23, “well done, good and faithful servant”.
Another item to consider for “offering” to God is the most valuable resource of time. Isn’t time one of the touted benefits of this early retirement movement? I think of my religious service and it is a significant amount of time. My wife’s parents are retired and going on their second mission to serve. Although it can hurt some to give financially (perhaps less truly felt when wealthy), I find the sacrifice is felt especially when it is about giving time. But I don’t regret this “investment” and I find I grow and am a better person as a result.
Can I pay 11% and get out of my calling/church job? 🙂
Although He doesn’t specifically say it will be a financial blessing.
Sermon I attended one day spoke of tithing being time talents and treasure. (Matthew 6:21?) I drew on this later when a member of my group (a not very helpful one) asked why we didn’t have a summer camp, a daycare, a charity food bank, a gym, on and on. I muttered to fellow board members “if all our members gave us 10% of their income, 10% of their time using their particular talent (if useful), why, then we’d be offering all those things. That complainer could start.”
Hi. Haven’t read through all the responses but in Judaism Tzedekah (righteousness, often confused with charity) is an obligation. The word charity suggests a kind nice thing to do. Righteousness is however an obligation. G-d Has given us more than our needs and so a minimum of 10% is thought of as a bonus that He gives us to distribute for others needs. We are obligated to give 10%. It is described that an average person gives 10%. It is better to give 20%. We are for bidden from giving over 20% in case there is a chance that this might impoverish us and we may need to receive charity from others. For one who has enough money that giving more than 20% will not impoverish him he is allowed. But this is a very serious obligation.
Thank you for this wonderful article. Reading through the comments also made me realize a few things. I appreciate the author and everyone who’s made out time to write a piece too. Gracias
Thanks. I really enjoyed reading this article.
Thank you for such a thorough document. It has caused me to rethink some “gaps” in my tithe. I’ve linked this article in my financial plan document for my wife to enjoy reading upon my eventual demise — and where I’ve documented what accounts/monies have been tithed, and what has not been. Also sent to my adult children, who have asked similar questions.
Thanks for the Vanguard No DAF guide, was just trying to puzzle through it myself recently, this will help.
Thank you for this post! The stats on giving in the U.S. are so disheartening – TurboTax tells me every year where my family stands with respect to charitable contribution deductions compared to others with our income (one physician, one work-from-home part-time IT consultant) and there is data https://nonprofitssource.com/online-giving-statistics/church-giving/ that suggests very low numbers overall. Imagine how much good could be done in the world if everyone gave 10% (and the organizations used that money well – as noted above, not all are equal in that regard)?!
Personally I am of the “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12) school of thought – we give 15% of our annual gross income to our church and have a leadership role there so we know how the money is being used, and then some additional giving to other ministries and charities on top of that. Every year I try to push myself to give a little more, and somehow we haven’t run out of money yet (though we are probably a little farther from FI than we otherwise could be, and have politely declined our financial advisor’s recommendation to give less).
One thing I started in 2020 was keeping track of discretionary spending – every time I spend money on myself for something frivolous (by my own definition), I give an equal amount to a charity that promotes education or service directed toward underserved populations. Makes me feel a little less guilty about spending money on myself…
Once our finances got more complex, my husband and I decided that for simplicity’s sake we would tithe 10% of whatever hit our bank account. If it doesn’t come to the checking or savings account, I figure it’s not spendable by us at this time and can be tithed later when it becomes liquid. We do this monthly. The prospect of trying to calculate all the things you have listed here (and honestly I had not considered even half of them) seems a bit nuts. So maybe some funds that “should have” been tithed aren’t, and some may be tithed twice. (I think looking at tithing like taxes is missing the mark anyway.) I figure it shakes out in the end and it’s more about one’s intention than exact numbers. We give generously to fast offerings and I don’t stress too much about whether we should tithe on the value of the eggs our chickens give us or the value of our employer-provided health insurance. I guess I am more of a “spirit-of-the-law” type. I don’t believe we’re going to get to the other side and find God going over his Excel chart pointing out every transaction we got wrong, but rather whether we did our best to make sense of the commandment and what was in our heart. On the whole this means I agree with your main points, which are that 1) it’s been the believer and God and 2) it’s best to try to stay consistent. I just wanted to offer another perspective.
I like the simplicity of that approach.
Thanks so much, Dr. Dahle! love this post. Very thorough and thoughtful. I’m a protestant mutt of a Christian without required tithing percentages, which is different from my (likely flawed) understanding of LDS. I do however, take tithing quite seriously, and 10% gross to me has always been a floor on my giving. I loved your point about tithing being between you and God, as well as much of the commentary above. I also love the idea of simplicity and “the spirit of the law” many folks have mentioned. One thing I think is important, though, in these “calculations” is that at the end of the day, it’s all God’s money anyways. So when in doubt about a rule or dollar amount, it makes most sense (to me) for a person of faith to just give/donate the greater of whatever two amounts is being questioned. Especially physicians, who should have income to spare. Worst case scenario, you are doing even more good in the Church and the community.
Followed instructions provided here to give to LDS church through Vanguard, the donations-in-kind office did not receive the donation and gave me a different Vanguard account number for the church instead. Would be interested in talking to whoever sent in those instructions to see if it is still working for them or not, if they are willing to get in contact. Thanks.
That’s interesting. It hasn’t been that long. Not sure I remember the name of the contributor but perhaps he’ll see this comment and chime in.
At any rate, I’d definitely do what the donations in kind office tells you. Or go down the DAF path that I’m doing (which seems much easier!)
I had this happen last year. They recently changed over to whole new account and system. I used to do it by mail and was excited for this option as I could pick the day I donated vs mailing it in and hoping it was an “up” day. Looks like the changes may have affected the mail as well as online option.
Dr James I could use clarification to understand if you’re saying that we should pay tithe on what my employer pays on payroll taxes like social security and what they pay for benefits like paying for part of a health insurance premium? I hope I’m asking this correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong but the Bible says we tithe on our gain a.k.a our increase (pre-tax of course). This is the reason that a self-employed person would pay on their net gain after paying for overhead or the cost of doing business. They would not pay tithe on their gross gain. When an employer pays part of your health insurance premium it would not make sense to me to tithe it on that because there is no gain or increase in your pocket. There is no loss either but there is no increase. I’m not asking this to argue I’m just trying to get clarification. To me would be like if my friend gave me a ride to work everyday and he didn’t ask me to pay for gas he just gave me a ride to work free of charge ….it’s a benefit and he paid for the ride out of his pocket but there was no gain to me or increase.
First I’m not telling you what to do at all. I’m telling you it’s between you and God.
But it seems silly to me to pay tithing on both payroll taxes and the benefits that come from those payroll taxes. You should pay on one of the other. I pay on the taxes. But I don’t pay on the employer portion of the taxes now that I am the employer just like I didn’t when I was an employee. Whether that’s “right” or “wrong” I have no idea but it seems reasonable to me and I think that’s all God expects.
So I think we’re on the same page on this particular point.