If the church classifies you as an employee, they will withhold taxes from your pay and give you a W-2 at the end of the year. You report it like any other job.
If they do not do that, they are classifying you as an independent contractor. If you think that is incorrect, there are three ways you can handle it.
1. Talk to whoever you are dealing with at the church. Explain to them why you think you are an employee, not an independent contractor, and ask them to treat you as an employee.
2. Go along with the independent contractor classification, even though you think it's wrong. You would have to report the income as business income, and pay self-employment tax as well as income tax. You cannot report it as miscellaneous income.
3. File Form SS-8 with the IRS, asking them to determine your proper classification. You would report the income on your tax return as if you were an employee, and indicate that you have filed Form SS-8. Doing this will likely upset the people at the church, since they will be contacted by the IRS. They might dismiss you as a result.
As SweetieJean said, the church is not free to choose whether to treat you as an employee or as an independent contractor, regardless of how the work is structured. As you seem to be aware, the IRS has guidelines for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The church has to follow those guidelines. As I said, though, if you feel they are not following the IRS guidelines, but you don't want to make waves, you can just go along with being treated as in an independent contractor. But if you do that, you have to report the income as business income. You cannot report it as miscellaneous income.
