Is it illegal to deposit church donations into the pastor's personal account?

Do you know what is the biggest distrust that church members, as well as those who do not believe in these days, have about the church? It's the opacity of church finances. In fact, many of the counseling sessions at the "Church Counseling Center" were financial issues.

In the church, donations from church members cover most of the income. Therefore, the first step in the soundness and transparency of the church's finances is donation management. By the way, would you believe that a large church with tens of thousands of church members managed church donations in the pastor's personal account? Eventually, the church's pastor was tried for embezzling billions of won in church money and was sentenced to prison.

The donations made by the church members are public funds from the church. And public money management is only to be managed and used in a bank account under the name of the church. However, depending on the church, there was a practice of managing donations in the name of the church's finance elder or in the name of the pastor in charge. Of course, it is not illegal in itself. Although the name is a personal account, there is no problem if the church manages it with a public account. 

However, this practice is not expected to be allowed from next year. It is required to pay taxes on pastors' income from 2018, and tax authorities are required to ask the church for data on how much the pastor's personal income is. However, if the church donation is used in the pastor's personal account, it is difficult to distinguish how far it is the pastor's personal property and how far it is the church's public money.

Regardless of these legal issues, it is not beneficial in itself to put church funds into the pastor's personal account. If you go to the local tax office, you can get a unique number, and if you take this with you, you can open a bank account under the name of the church if you go to the bank simply. It's not hard.