I received this question today: Pastor, I have a question regarding the gift I just received from the government, do I need to return tithe on that, or would it be right to give an offering from it somewhere else? If so, where is it most needed?
Here's my response: Disclaimer: Follow your conscience: I am not God. I offer this information to help you think through the possible approaches to this question:
Dear church member, It's funny you should ask, I was just pondering the same question. I’m not sure whether one would count a stimulus check as income or something more like a tax refund of income you already tithed—if you have been in the habit of tithing your gross income before taxes are deducted. (If one has not tithed their gross income, then certainly any money you get back from the government is income that’s not been tithed, whether a tax refund or social security, etc.) One way to decide would be to ask how the government views this money. A quick web search reveals that government is not going to tax this money—they don’t consider it income but a ‘refundable tax credit.’ Which essentially means a reduction in the tax you owe that is payable even if you didn’t owe any tax. I suppose one could say if one has never paid any taxes that it’s certainly income, a gift from the US Treasury, but if you have paid more taxes than the money you’re getting ‘back’ then it’s just as if the government is saying, “Hey, we overcharged you by X amount. Here, have it back.” Or another way of looking at it is. “Hey we think you would do a better job than we would of spending some of your tax money, so here it is to spend.”—in which case, I would agree that it’s not technically ‘increase’ needing to be tithed. All that said, however, you can never out give God, and if you took the position of, “I’m going to tithe this because for me it’s income that I otherwise would not have,” I can’t argue with that. If God’s accounting department thinks you got it wrong, He will make sure to get it back to you somehow.
Regarding where funds are needed. Generally I encourage people to give to local church combined budget to support all the ministries of our church. If our budget is fully funded and we’ve got too much money, the board can always find a special project—we’d love to pay down the fellowship hall mortgage early for instance, but if we fund special projects and not the budget, then we’re hampered in our ability to carry out the worship and ministries we already have planned. A portion of our budget goes to the fellowship hall mortgage as it is, so giving to combined budget supports that project directly already.
Thanks for having a heart to partner with God and be a channel of blessing!