I am a pastor (or minister or clergy) in a church! I became one back in April 2016! I've had quiet some expenses for the remaining 8 months!

[2016gironarochet]

I did receive $60 for gas expenses one time! but because of the financial strain of our church i do not wish to receive any income! But the expenses that i have made in the past 9 months like travel expenses are quite big! for example the mileage i drive from my house to the church is 125.4 miles , but in one week i drive a total of 250.8 miles! I was told to put it a charitable donations! I had read to file as self-employed so i was going with that, because there were other expenses that i made using my finances! I also don't know if i apply as minister, clergy or pastor . I have documents to back up as minister or clergy i guess until my inauguration as pastor!  Please help, I am new at this!

[Opus 17]

Already answered here. https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3455317-in-april-i-became-a-pastor-not-officially-on-paper-but-i-a...

You can't deduct expenses as work expenses unless you have work income.  It doesn't matter if you are pastor or not.  (On top of that, pastor's expense deductions are limited by something called the Deason rule, but you don't have that issue now because you don't have work expenses.)

Any out of pocket expenses you have in providing service for a charity are deductible as donations to charity.  You can deduct miles driven at 14 cents per mile, this is part of the Turbotax donations to charity section.  Other expenses, such as things you bought with your own money, are "item" donations.  Use the actual value method, not ItsDeductible or Guide Me, and use your actual costs (from receipts) as the expense.

If you live in church-provided housing for free (like a parsonage), that is something you have to pay self employment tax on but not income tax.  But you say you drive to work so that sounds like it is not an issue.

When you start receiving a salary there are many things you need to know, start by reading this.

http://www.ecfa.org/PDF/2016-Preparing-Tax-Returns-For-Clergy.pdf

[2016gironarochet]

For every trip i make twice a week i spend in gas, so lets say $20 a week! how do i put that in, and we have always provided snacks for the nursery out of pocket, twice a week for the kids. We also have bought out of pocket material for flyers like paper, and ink. For birthdays we bought cakes out of pocket at about $35 each. we also spend out of pocket for an event we did giving back to the community and we bought food, like hamburgers, drinks, hot dogs,  etc. and also handed out whole chickens for families to take home, and we spent some $$! so how do i put that stuff in? and is it like a separate entry for charity? this sounds about right i have my id and i am ordained, commissioned or licensed by a church or church denomination and have the authority to conduct religious worship, perform sacerdotal functions and administer ordinances or sacraments.  <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/Ministers-and-Taxes/INF12069.ht...>

[Opus 17]

It doesn't matter that you are clergy in this case, since you don't have clergy income to deduct expenses against.

You can deduct out of pocket costs for work you perform for any charity like any other persona and any other charity.  In turbotax, enter your church's name under donations to charity.  Add money donations for any money you donated.  Add item donations for anything you paid for that was not cash or checks given to the church (flyers, supplies, etc.)  For each item donation enter the date, say "I will value the items myself", describe the item, its cost, and choose a method of determining value (actual price.)  You can probably summarize with one large entry of similar items.  If audited you will need receipts and some kind of written statement from the church acknowledging your donations.  See this for more, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/uac/about-publication-526">https://www.irs.gov/uac/about-publication-526</a>

Unfortunately you can't deduct gas cost directly.  The only way to deduct car expenses is to use the mileage method and deduct 14 cents per mile.  You will need a record of the date of each trip, purpose, and mileage.  This may not come up to gas cost, unfortunately Congress set a flat rate for charity mileage instead of an adjustable rate based on inflation and they haven't updated it recently.  Enter the total number of miles driven as a mileage donation under charity donations.

If, at some point the church starts paying you a salary, then you can deduct these expenses as work expenses instead of charity donations.  But that deduction has other limitations that will have to be taken into account at that time.