{"id":27189,"date":"2013-07-19T07:57:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T12:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=27189"},"modified":"2013-07-19T07:57:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T12:57:47","slug":"should-i-pay-for-my-childs-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/should-i-pay-for-my-childs-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Pay For My Child’s Mission?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1945_1366037191\"<\/a>Yes. I mean, I don’t know exactly, but still, yes, probably.<\/p>\n

Depending, of course, on what benefits you see from paying for a mission.[fn1] But, from a tax perspective, it makes way more sense for you to pay.<\/p>\n

My answer is subject to all sorts of caveats, of course. I’m assuming, among other things, that you’re a U.S. taxpayer,[fn2] that you are in favor of your child’s serving a mission, and that you are in at least as good a position as your child to save and pay for your child’s mission.<\/p>\n

Why should you pay rather than your child? Because the amount you pay to support missionaries (whether your own child or payments to the General Missionary Fund<\/a>) are tax-deductible.<\/p>\n

So? you may ask. Can’t my child take a tax deduction?<\/p>\n

Sure. But, unless you child makes more money than you, and continues to earn that money during his or her mission, the deduction is more valuable than you.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way: assume your daughter earns $7,250.[fn3] Meanwhile, you and your spouse collectively earn $52,762 during the year.[fn4] That puts your daughter in the 10% tax bracket<\/a>, and you (assuming you file jointly) in the 15% bracket.<\/p>\n

With missions costing $4,800\/year<\/a>, your daughter could reduce her tax bill by $480. You, on the other hand, would reduce your tax bill by $720.<\/p>\n

Which is to say, for tax purposes,[fn5] you should pay for your child’s mission.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

[fn1] Note that I’m talking solely about\u00a0paying<\/em> for a mission—saving<\/em> for a mission is something else entirely, and, imho, you should have your child save for a mission<\/a>. What happens to that money after his or her mission is up to you guys.<\/p>\n

[fn2] I’m sorry to be U.S.-centric here. I assume the same answer applies in at least some other countries, but I’m not a comparative tax guy, so I can’t say for sure.<\/p>\n

[fn3] That’s working 20 hours a week for 50 weeks of the year at the federal minimum wage<\/a> of $7.25\/hour.<\/p>\n

[fn4] That is, the median household income<\/a> in the U.S. in 2007-2011.<\/p>\n

[fn5] People tell me there are purposes beyond tax purposes, but I’m not entirely sure I believe them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes. I mean, I don’t know exactly, but still, yes, probably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":27190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,54,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bloggernacle","category-mormon-life","category-missionary","category-parenting"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1945_1366037191.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27191,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27189\/revisions\/27191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}