Assessing income and assets for ministers of religion 108-04050000

Is the minister's income to be applied for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Subsidy (CCS) purposes or for an income support payment?

• For FTB/CCS, go to Step 2
• For income support payments, go to Step 3

The amount of income to be assessed is determined by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Income assessed as taxable by the ATO, is assessed as income for FTB purposes. Exempt fringe benefits received would not appear on the Payment Summary or be declared to the ATO. If fringe benefits are exempt for ATO purposes, they are also exempt for FTB assessment purposes.

See Income tests for family assistance and Paid Parental Leave scheme payments for assessing FTB income.

Procedure ends here.

A flexible approach must be adopted when assessing income for ministers of religion; each case must be treated separately on its own merits. The customer's income and benefits package/agreement with the church must be investigated fully, and carefully considered in relation to what is income for Centrelink purposes.

All income and reportable fringe benefits received for personal use or benefit are assessed as income (valuable consideration) unless they are determined to be exempt income (for example, free board and lodging).

All income and reportable fringe benefits must be declared for Centrelink to assess what is assessable and what is exempt income.

Employment

An amount earned is treated as income for social security purposes, if:

• a customer is employed by a religious organisation, and
• the organisation:
• sets the rate of pay, and
• pays the customer

For example, the income amount earned, derived or received is deemed as for the customer's own use or benefit regardless of whether they subsequently divest themselves of the money after payment.

For coding advice, see Recording and correcting employment income details.

If clarification of the customer's terms of employment is needed, go to Step 4

An organisation may:

• employ a religious organisation to supply any of their individual members to work for their organisation, and
• pay employment income to the religious organisation, not the individual

In this case, the payment for the work is income of the religious organisation and not of the individual member.

Go to Step 4.

Request documents from the church showing any agreement made concerning the minister's income package and allowances.

Tell the minister the documents must clearly differentiate the amounts for work related expenses and personal use.

When the minister provides acceptable documents of all income and allowances, go to Step 5.

If an amount of money, or other benefit is provided for the minister's, and their family's, own personal use or benefit, it is assessed as income.

There are certain allowable and non-allowable deductions for ministers of religion. If a minister has out of pocket expenses related to their work, and an allowance is paid by the church to cover these expenses, the allowance is disregarded as income. However, if the church pays more than the amount actually incurred by the minister, the extra is included as income.

If the minister has access to an allowance for general living expenses (sometimes in the form of a bank account) from which work-related expenses are also paid, only the amounts used for work-related purposes are disregarded as income. Any other expenditure is for the minister's own personal use and benefit, and is treated as income.

All income and allowances deemed to be used for the Minister's personal use must be applied to the applicable income test.

See Assessment of income and assets.

Some ministers may have income, which is highly variable, similar to casual employees, especially if as part of their income from the church, they receive a percentage of the church collection plate (which varies from week to week). As with variable earners, ministers with this type of arrangement must report and be assessed on a fortnightly basis unless the customer's circumstance meets the pension Monthly Exception Rule. See Recording and correcting employment income details

See Reporting overview.

Determine the assessable assets for the minister and record on appropriate screens:

• For financial assets:
• bank accounts and term deposits, see Coding income and assets
• managed investments, see Managed investments - adding a new investment
• securities, see Adding shares and securities
• for other assets, see Coding income and assets
• If there is a small change to asset values determine if the customer needs to notify

Record the details of assessment on a DOC.