Baptistry Safety Check
Never, ever, use a wired microphone in a baptismal pool. Even a normally harmless leakage of stray volts into a microphone is lethal when a person is immersed in water.
Make it your church policy that no mains-wired electrical equipment of any sort is to be within arm’s reach of a baptistry pool. You should attach a permanent warning display on your PA equipment about this.
Your policy should include:
• No wired microphone (i.e. connected by a lead to an amplifier) to be used in, or within six feet of a pool. Not even by someone outside the pool holding a long boom towards the pool. (It could fall in and could result in death.)
• No other electric audio-visual equipment: camcorders, tape recorders, guitar, etc., connected to mains power even through a low voltage transformer should be used near a pool.
• No light fitting or electric socket should be located within six feet. Power sockets, especially those set into the floor, could easily be splashed and make the entire wet area live. Consult a qualified electrician about either totally isolating these circuits with remote double-pole switches, or covering them temporarily with totally waterproof sealing boxes.
• All electronic equipment should be grounded. Audio users sometimes disconnect the ground lead to reduce hum. The integrity of ground connections in equipment and within the building should be checked by a qualified electrician.
If any item of electrical equipment should fall into the baptistry, occupants should freeze, the item be unplugged (not just switched off) and removed from the water by a dry person from outside the pool.
—from www.gospelcom.net
The Tax Files Rules and Rulings
New mileage reimbursement The standard mileage rate for business miles driven in 2006 is 44.5 cents per mile. In 2005 it was 40.5 cents per mile during the first 8 months of the year, and 48.5 cents per mile during the final 4 months of the year (up from 37.5 cents per mile in 2004).
It makes cents When filling out W-2 forms, be sure to add cents to all amounts. Make all dollar entries without a dollar sign and comma, but with a decimal point and cents. For example, $1,000 should read 1000.00. Government scanning equipment assumes that the last two figures of any amount are cents. If you report $40,000 as 40000, the scanning equipment would interpret this as 400.00 ($400)! If a box does not apply, leave it blank—do not insert “0.”
—from Church Treasurer Alert! (Jan 2006)
What’s taxable The church may forgive us our debts, but we still owe the tax. Churches sometimes make loans to staff that they later forgive. But everyone should be aware that debt forgiveness means taxable income to the debtor.
A company loaned an employee a substantial amount of money. The employer later “forgave” the remaining $300,000 debt as part of a severance agreement. The employer did not report it as taxable income on the employee’s W-2 form. The IRS audited the employee’s tax return, and classified the forgiven debt as taxable income. The Tax Court agreed. Corrigan v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2005-119 (2005).
—from Church Law and Tax Report, (Jan/Feb 2006)
Bulletin Bloopers
Ushers may eat late arrivals.      * * * Coffee and beagles will be served in the gym today.
—from ChurchSecretaryToday.com
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