Continue your housing allowance—even in retirement

There’s no place like home. It may be the one place where you can take a break from the stress and challenges of ministry. As an ordained or licensed minister or commissioned missionary, you are likely able to take advantage of a housing allowance tax credit.

But what happens when you retire from vocational ministry? Can you continue to receive this important benefit? If you participate in the Converge Retirement Plan, you can.

This means you can continue to receive up to 100 percent of your plan income at tax time. Secular plans can’t offer this. Because the Converge Retirement Plan is a denominational plan, you can keep your housing allowance benefit when you retire. That means the Converge Retirement Plan provides significant potential tax savings.

How it works
The Internal Revenue Service allows income from denominational retirement plans to be designated as housing allowance. The pension committee has declared 100 percent of any distribution you receive from both the pension and the defined contribution will be designated as housing allowance. The participant will be responsible for calculating the amount received from the Retirement Plan that is used for housing expenses and adding any unused distributions to your income tax return as taxable income.

The amount of housing expense you can use to offset the housing allowance is the lesser of:

1. 100% of your distributions
2. Your actual expenses
3. The fair market rental value of your home plus utilities

If you currently receive housing allowance as part of your compensation, you are already accustomed to tracking your housing expenses. Secular retirement companies cannot designate your distributions as housing allowance. This means that Converge Retirement provides significant potential tax savings to you compared to secular retirement options.

Contact the Converge Retirement Plan at 1.888.984.8433 to learn how you can provide yourself or qualified employees housing allowance treatment of future benefits.