The short answer
An honorarium for a guest speaker is generally a payment for services, so the church collects a Form W-9 before paying and tracks the total; for 2026 payments, the Form 1099-NEC threshold is $2,000. A love offering is money the church collects and passes on to a person. How it is treated depends on who receives it and how it was collected, so the records should show every step and the church's CPA decides the treatment.
Two payments that look like gifts
A missionary preaches on Sunday morning. The church hands over a check for an honorarium, books the hotel for two nights, and the pastor announces that the evening offering will go to the missionary as a love offering. In December, members also take up a love offering for their own pastor. All of it feels like generosity, and all of it moves church money to a person.
IRS Publications 1828 and 517, the two written for churches and clergy, do not use the phrase "love offering". They do describe the pieces: payments for services, reimbursed expenses, offerings received by clergy, and gifts meant for a particular person. The records job is to keep those pieces apart so the church's CPA can apply the rules to the facts.
Honoraria and the 2026 Form 1099-NEC threshold
The instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC treat nonprofit organizations as engaged in a trade or business for reporting purposes. They call for Form 1099-NEC for each person paid at least $2,000 during the year for services by someone who is not an employee. That threshold applies for tax years beginning after 2025 and may be adjusted for inflation beginning in 2027. The instructions also say payments to a corporation are generally not reported, with exceptions.
A speaker who comes once a year may never reach the threshold. One who preaches monthly, leads a conference and returns for a revival may pass it without anyone noticing. That is why the payee total matters more than any single check. Collect a Form W-9 before the first payment, and code every payment to the speaker so a year-end total by payee is one report. The detail on W-9s and January deadlines is in contractor records before January, and the church's full list of filings is in what a church does and doesn't file.
Whether a regular speaker is a contractor or an employee is decided on the facts, and it is a question for the CPA. A staff member who preaches is paid through payroll.
Travel, lodging and meals for a speaker
A church can book and pay a speaker's airfare and hotel directly. That is the cleanest record, because the invoice is in the church's name and the money never passes through the speaker's hands.
When the speaker pays first and the church reimburses, IRS Publication 463 has a section for independent contractors and their clients. It says a contractor who receives a reimbursement or allowance for travel on behalf of a client should give the client an adequate accounting of those expenses. In practice that means receipts and an expense summary from the speaker, kept with the payment.
The accountable plan rules most treasurers know are written for employees and are covered in reimbursing church expenses. For a guest who is not an employee, record the honorarium and the travel as separate lines, attach the receipts, and let the CPA decide whether the reimbursement belongs in the Form 1099-NEC total.
| Payment | What the church records | Decision that belongs to the CPA |
|---|---|---|
| Honorarium to an individual speaker | W-9 before payment; payment coded to the payee | Contractor or employee; Form 1099-NEC at $2,000 or more for 2026 |
| Honorarium paid to a speaker's ministry corporation | W-9 showing the entity; invoice | Whether any reporting exception applies |
| Speaker's airfare and hotel | Church-paid invoices, or receipts with an expense summary | Whether reimbursements count in the 1099 total |
| Love offering collected for a guest | Count sheet, deposit, then payment to the speaker | 1099 total; contribution statement treatment |
| Love offering or gift for the church's own pastor | Collection record, approval and how it was paid | Whether it is compensation run through payroll |
| Wedding fee a family pays the pastor directly | Nothing in the church's books | None for the church; the pastor's own return |
A love offering for a guest
When the church takes up an offering for a visiting speaker, the money is received by the church, deposited, and then paid out. Record it that way: income into a clearly named account, then a payment to the speaker from that account, with the count sheet showing the total collected.
Two questions follow, and neither belongs to the bookkeeper. First, whether the payment to the speaker joins the honorarium in the year's total for Form 1099-NEC. Second, how givers' contribution statements treat it. IRS Publication 526 lists, among contributions a donor cannot deduct, payments to a member of the clergy that can be spent as they wish, such as for personal expenses, and contributions to individuals even when made through a qualified organization for a specific person. Gifts earmarked for a needy family raise the same issue, covered in benevolence fund records.
Settle both with the CPA once, write the answer into the church's policy, and announce the offering the same way every time, so givers know beforehand how it will be handled. If the same evening includes a dinner, auction or raffle, those payments have their own rules, compared in fundraiser gift or purchase.
Love offerings and gifts for your own pastor
Pastor appreciation month, an anniversary or a Christmas offering for the pastor is a different case, because the pastor works for the church. IRS Publication 517 says members of the clergy must include in income offerings and fees received for marriages, baptisms, funerals and similar services, in addition to salary. Publication 1828 says a church reports compensation paid to an employee minister on Form W-2.
Whether a particular offering collected for the pastor is compensation, and how it runs through church payroll, is a decision for leadership and the church's CPA. Payroll then follows that decision. How a minister's pay is set up in the first place is covered in church payroll basics.
Some money never touches the church's books. Publication 517 says amounts a minister receives directly from members of the congregation, such as fees for performing marriages and baptisms, are not wages but self-employment income. A wedding fee a family hands to the pastor is the pastor's to report, not the church's. A fee paid to the church and then passed on is church money, and the records should show it.
A short written policy
One page adopted by leadership prevents most problems. It usually covers:
- Who may invite a paid speaker and approve the honorarium
- A Form W-9 before any payment, and a payee total checked each December
- Whether the church books travel directly or reimburses against receipts
- How love offerings are announced, counted, recorded and paid out
- How love offerings appear, or do not appear, on contribution statements, as settled with the CPA
- Who decides whether a gift to staff is compensation, with the answer kept in the payroll file
