Church Officer and Director Liability
Church board members are often surprised to learn they can be personally liable despite the corporate shield. Here’s what fiduciary duty, duty of care, and duty of loyalty actually require.
Blog
Banking Beneficiaries: Who Gets Your Money When You Die
Who inherits your bank account has almost nothing to do with your will. Banking beneficiaries, set through POD, Totten trust, joint, or trust accounts, pass outside probate, and in California a designation can beat your will entirely. Here’s how each works.
California California Proposition 19: Critical Property Tax Rules
California Proposition 19 lets seniors carry a low tax base to a new home, but sharply limits the parent-child inheritance exclusion and caps it at a set dollar amount. Here’s what families and property owners need to know.
Religious Employment and Discrimination: What Churches Can and Can’t Do
Religious employment gives churches real freedom over who fills their faith-based roles, but that freedom has limits. Here’s how Title VII’s exemption and the ministerial exception protect a church’s decisions, and exactly where they stop.
Incidental Use of Church Property: Weddings, Fairs, and Garage Sales
Renting the sanctuary for a wedding or running a garage sale can raise a real tax question for a church. Here’s how the incidental use of church property interacts with UBIT, and the exceptions that keep most church fundraisers tax-free.
Independent Contractors
How California’s ABC test determines independent contractor status, the steep misclassification penalties, and why clergy are a separate, dual-status category.
How to Sell Church Property in California: The 5 Key Steps
Selling church property takes more than a listing. Learn the five steps every California church must follow: confirming ownership, getting congregational approval, securing the right representation, understanding true value, and giving the Attorney General proper notice before the sale.
Extension Cords in Churches: Fire Code, Liability, and Safety
That extension cord running under the sanctuary rug is both a fire hazard and a liability risk. Here’s what the California Fire Code actually requires for extension cords, and how a known hazard can put your church on the hook.
