Tax Season
This year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax season officially began on January 29, 2024. For your 2023 taxes, it is not necessary to fill out specific tax forms indicating that, as a member of a health care sharing ministry, you are exempt from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandate to have insurance. Furthermore, you are not required to claim an exemption, provide documentation of your membership, make a shared responsibility payment, or obtain an Exemption Certificate Number for your federal tax return. Please check below to see if your state has its own insurance mandate requirements.
This year’s tax donation letters (documenting your qualifying charitable 2023 donations) were sent out by postal mail on January 31, 2024.
Shares you are assigned to send to other members and to Samaritan Ministries (for administrative purposes) are only considered tax deductible if you are filing with the State of Missouri. For the 2023 tax year, we are not aware of any other states where this is the case. Starting in tax year 2024, however, Shares assigned to other members and to Samaritan (for administrative purposes) will also be tax deductible for members filing with the State of Indiana.
Visit our Donate to Samaritan Ministries page to see ways in which you can make tax-deductible donations to the ministry.
Note: For information related to filing taxes for previous tax years, see the Tax Archive page.
For your 2023 taxes, there are special tax considerations in seven states for health care sharing ministry members.
These states include:
California
Massachusetts
Missouri
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington, D.C.
This year’s tax donation letters (documenting your qualifying charitable 2023 donations) were sent out on January 31. The tax deduction letters (sent only to State of Missouri residents), were also sent by postal mail on January 31, 2024.
Note: Shares you are assigned to send to Samaritan Ministries or to other members of Samaritan Ministries are not considered a tax-deductible donation at the federal level or for most states. At the present time, Shares you send to other members are only considered a tax-deductible expense if you are filing with the State of Missouri. Starting with tax year 2024, the same will be true for members filing with the State of Indiana.
No. As far as we are aware, the IRS does not consider Shares you send to other members as an itemized personal deduction on Schedule A.
In the past, we have seen that claiming medical bills for which Shares were received has caused members to have an issue with the IRS. We recommend conferring with your tax adviser before doing so.
No. While Samaritan Ministries is recognized by the IRS as an exempt charity, only donations given beyond the administrative fees and monthly Shares you are assigned to send other members are deductible as a charitable gift.
As far as we are aware, the IRS has never considered the receipt of Shares from other Samaritan members to help pay your medical bills as income.
There are many friends of health care sharing ministries in Congress who want clarification and changes in the tax laws that would be beneficial to our members. There is a good chance for such changes to occur with the help of our members contacting their representatives in Congress. We will notify our members when we need their help contacting their representatives.
If you received Shares in your PayPal account that were accidentally sent via Goods and Services rather than Friends and Family, you may receive a 1099-K detailing the amount of these transactions. On November 21, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that they are further delaying the 1099-K change that would require a $600 threshold of Goods and Services reporting. During the 2024 transition year, the threshold amount will be $5,000.
For tax year 2023, you should only receive a 1099-K if you received more than $20,000 in Goods and Services transactions. No member has reported having this occur to them because of Shares sent improperly. Please click this link for more information on this implementation delay.
Note: Member Shares are gifts from one person to another and to our knowledge the IRS has never considered the receipt of Shares as income.
The 1099-K is not the IRS making a declaration on the taxability of those dollars, but merely showing the funds sent to your PayPal account via Goods and Services. You can find the full article here: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/understanding-your-form-1099-k
What does my Form 1099-K report to me?
Form 1099-K includes the gross amount of all reportable payment transactions. You will receive a Form 1099-K from each payment settlement entity from which you received payments in settlement of reportable payment transactions. A reportable payment transaction is defined as a payment card transaction or a third-party network transaction.
• Payment card transaction means any transaction in which a payment card, or any account number or other identifying data associated with a payment card, is accepted as payment.
• Third party network transaction means any transaction that is settled through a third-party payment network, but only after the total amount of such transactions exceeds the minimum reporting thresholds.
The gross amount of a reportable payment does not include any adjustments for credits, cash equivalents, discount amounts, fees, refunded amounts, or any other amounts. The dollar amount of each transaction is determined on the date of the transaction.
Note: The minimum reporting thresholds apply only to payments settled through a third-party network; there is no threshold for payment card transactions.
Please confer with your tax adviser about the proper way to navigate the situation if you receive a 1099-K because of Shares being sent incorrectly.
If you have general questions regarding health care sharing ministries and taxes,
please contact us at taxquestion@samaritanministries.org. For more specific tax questions,
please consult your tax adviser.
The above is provided as an informational service only for our members and is not tax advice.
For tax advice, please contact your tax adviser.