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FINANCIAL & ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

Finance

The Finance office works with local churches and pastors in the areas of healthcare, pension, apportionments, loans, equitable compensation, and program support. The executive director of Financial & Administrative Services provides education and training to individuals serving their local church in financial ministry. The office staff ensures that East Ohio Conference local churches are compliant with their church, audit, and pastor’s compensation reports, and it provides budget information and tools that are helpful in interpreting apportionments. The staff also processes payroll for those churches enrolled in the payroll service.

Administrative Services

The Administrative Services office is responsible, through the Conference Board of Trustees, for the oversight and operation of the Area Center, the episcopal residence, Conference and district parsonages, and all Conference property and insurance. Questions about church parsonages, and architects/contractors working on building construction/expansion should be directed to the executive director of Financial & Administrative Services.

Questions about closing a church building or abandoning a church property should be directed to your district superintendent’s office.

News You Need to Know

Ministry Financials
In order to improve services to our churches, we have created a more streamlined approach toward viewing your shared ministry remittance statement and your health & pension statements. In addition to being able to view your statements, you can pay them online as well. Going forward, Ministry Financials will be the approach to use; the old approach (going to online forms, downloading your statement, and then going to online payments to pay your apportionments) has been discontinued and is no longer available to view online.

Please take the time to view this short video.
Ministry Financials Login

To log in, your username is your GCFA number, and your temporary password is EOC2024. You will be prompted to create a unique password that should be changed any time a new treasurer is assigned.

**If you have recurring payments set up with our old system (Vanco through online payments site), you will need to log in and cancel them.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Eva Casey at ext. 135.

2026 Mileage Rates
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released the 2026 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Effective July 1, 2026, the mileage reimbursement rates for gasoline, diesel, electric, and hybrid vehicles are:

• 76 cents per mile driven for business use, an increase of $0.35 or 4.83% since the last increase:
• On January 1, the rate increased from $0.70 to $0.725 per mile.
• On July 1, the rate increased from $0.725 to $0.76 per mile.
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations. This rate pertains to a volunteer for the Conference, not for a Conference employee.

Ohio Minimum Wage
Effective January 1, 2026, the minimum wage in the State of Ohio is $11.00/hour for non-tipped employees. The Federal Minimum wage is $7.25/hour.

Employers whose gross receipts are less than $405,000 shall pay their employees no less than the Federal minimum wage. Employers are required to post the minimum wage and overtime information in a conspicuous place, such as an employee break room or office that can be accessed by employees. A free downloadable copy of the 2026 Ohio Minimum Wage poster is available here or from the Ohio Department of Commerce website.

GCFA Group Ruling
Each local United Methodist church has the option to be included on the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) group ruling, but they are not required to do so. Earlier this year, the IRS issued new guidance for group letter rulings like the one GCFA administers for The United Methodist Church.

If you misplaced the determination letter your church should have received from the IRS, it’s possible that leadership applied for the church to be included in GCFA’s group letter ruling. That determination letter is important for many reasons, one of which is that banks often require it when a church opens a new bank account or changes who can be a signer on a bank account.

If leadership has or wishes to apply for your church to be included in GCFA’s group ruling, you can do so on the GCFA website, www.gcfa.org. There is no cost to apply. Leadership who know their local church is already part of the GCFA group ruling do not need to take additional action to remain part of it.

GCFA is communicating directly with church-related participants in the group letter ruling to help them comply with the new IRS rules, which require sending IRS Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches & Religious Organizations, to every organization relying on GCFA’s group letter ruling. The publication is informational, and GCFA must deliver it annually as part of the updated compliance framework.

Churches are not required to file a Form 990 federal income tax return in most situations, but any participating organization that chooses to file a version of Form 990 must also provide a copy of that tax return to GCFA every year. If you have questions about the group ruling, please e-mail Vera Milanovic or call her at (330) 499-3972 ext. 123.

Clergy Housing Allowance
The clergy housing allowance provided by Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.

The group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) announced, on June 14, 2019, that it would not ask the United States Supreme Court to review its challenge to the housing allowance. After winning its case in a federal district court in Wisconsin, the FFRF’s victory was overturned -and the housing allowance was found to be constitutional by the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, a federal court immediately below the Supreme Court. In its June 14 press release, the FFRF stated a lack of confidence that members of the Supreme Court would be willing to overturn the 7th Circuit’s decision.

United Methodist Insurance Program Revisions
The Book of Discipline requires local church trustees to annually review and report on the adequacy of local church property and liability insurance coverage “to ensure that the church, its properties, and its personnel are properly protected against risks.” Since 1797, The Book of Discipline has provided that the property and assets of local churches are held in trust for the benefit of the denomination. Inadequate insurance puts local church property and assets at risk, including the denomination’s trust interest therein. In representing the denomination’s trust interest, the General Council on Finance & Administration (GCFA) in December 2021 revised minimum insurance requirements for local churches.

Read the revised UMC Minimum Insurance Requirements.