Double Your Tithing
November 20th, 2006 by John Mansfield
My brother-in-law had an interesting story to tell me. His employer matches 75% of employees’ charitable contributions, up to a limit of several thousands of dollars. So he had the company send an extra donation to the Church to match his tithing. After a couple years of that the company policy changed so that donations now have to go to an educational institution. The employees’ charitable contributions don’t have to go the same place that the company’s do, though. So the match on my brother-in-law’s tithing last year went to his son’s high school wrestling program. They really like seeing him around the mats these days.
So maybe this is a way to get BYU to stop calling…
In such a situation, could I justifiably pay just 5% of my increase in tithing?
gst, since it’s 75%, you would need to pay approximately 5.714% tithing.
I wonder if PEF donations would count as “educational institution” donations under that policy.
re: PEF counting as educational. I would hope so. Especially if it’s set up under a separate corporation from Corp of the Presiding Bishop, or Corp of the President.
Yeah for Wrestling!
Tithing is such a blessing and then to have your employer match contributions is awesome. I wish all employers did that. We would have the ability to help a lot of people that way. In your brother-in-law’s case, I’m sure the boys in the wrestling program will be very grateful
I’m self-employed, and I match all the contributions I make to the church. So I pay 5% tithing and my employer pays 5% and everybody’s happy.
I would argue that if you use it to reduce your own contribution, the employer’s match itself should be considered a tithable increase. That increases the out-of-pocket percentage slightly above Bill’s revised figure. My calculations put it at 5.97% of regular wages (which is equal to 5.714% of the sum of regular wages and the employer’s match). Fun math.
Ivan, when I typed this up, the joy it would bring you was one thing that crossed my mind.
Finally! The meaning real meaning of Gen 32:24-25.
This story reminds me of a new hire from Univ. Chicago when I was at Chrysler. Chrysler also matched donations to educational institutions. This new hire learned that a wealthy alumnus would match donations from first-year grads to the school. This smart young man negotiated with the school to forgive his student loans if he would “donate” half their outstanding balance… + Chrysler’s match + alumnus’s match = 1.5 loans’ value.