Whitfield & Associates LLC - Your Church CPA
Looking for An Excellent Christian Church CPA to Help Get Your 501c3? Or Get Your Finances In Order?
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Hello, I am the Bookkeeper here at First Baptist Church of Big Bear in California. I found your web-site while searching for a CPA that works with churches and clergy. I feel it is necessary that our church have a CPA who is knowledgeable in this field. There are times when questions come up, such as housing allowance questions or sales tax questions that myself as the Bookkeeper or our Treasurer are asked to research, but church law can be hard to interpret. I would like to find out how to use your company and expertise for help with tax law and what the cost involved would be.
Thank you. Any information will be helpful.
Rhonda Wijnhamer
Karen Swinger referred Whitfield and Associates to me for my business purposes. I would like for someone to contact me so I may ask specific questions.
Thank you,
Deborah Peters, CMP
Soigne’ Celebrations
Hi Deborah,
It was great speaking with you. I’m glad I could help with the business referral.
By the way, your website is awesome!
Blessings,
Belinda
I would like to talk with someone about the fees involved to set up as a not for profit. On 12/11/2011, I lost my son Zach, age 14, to suicide. We are seeking to establish a fund in Zach’s name to help parents and kids by offering free or sliding scale (based on real numbers – not gross income) counseling and legal assistance. Our family has not yet incorporated anything, we are just beginning to research the steps needed. More information about our goal for this fund can be found here: http://zachmcdonald.net/zachsfriendsfund.html.
Personally, I live payday to payday. I am blessed to have a job though when so many do not. A handful of people who attended the memorial and a few people from where my little sister works made donations. We set this off to the side. A credit union has offered to help us set up a proper account, but we want to make sure we are taking all the right steps to: 1. Ensure donations are deductible. 2. Ensure strong leadership so good decisions are made for immediate assistance to kids. 3. That as much red tape as possible is eliminated. 4. Establish a pool of counselors and legal professionals willing to both volunteer services and offer them on a sliding scale for parents who know their kids need help right now.
Any insight or push in the right direction you might be able to offer would be very much appreciated. We anticipate that this could take a year or more to do the right way to make sure we are truly able to help those who need it. We are taking baby steps because there is still a great deal of healing to try to do one minute at a time.
Bless You,
Julie
Hello Julie,
Sorry for the delayed response, as God has me on a special assignment to serve as CEO/President of Covenant Bank for the next 6 months.
I am so sorry to hear about your loss. It is a good thing you are doing.
Check out this page on my site that provides an overview of what’s required. Here’s the link: http://churchcpa.com/2011/07/5-steps-to-get-your-501c3/
Our sample 501c3 application kits can help do-it-yourself-ers’ save money.
You may want to use the sample kit for Outreach Ministries.
You will need to do some customizing to describe your specific activities.
You can follow my samples to see how much detail to include and how to address a lot of the other questions on the Form 1023.
Peace and Blessings!
Belinda Whitfield
If my church wants to start a thrift store for the benefit of the church and located on the church premises. Do we have to incorporate the thrift store as a separate entity or can we just make it a part of the church using the same tax ID number, etc.