Free guides · From ClergyTrak
What forty years of ministry taught me about the housing allowance.
The housing allowance is the biggest tax benefit in ministry and the one nobody explains properly. These are the explanations I wish someone had handed me — written for pastors, not accountants, and free.
The Clergy Housing Allowance Playbook
The explanation I wish someone had handed me in my first year of ministry. Read it once and you’ll understand your allowance better than most of us did after twenty years.
Start readingHow to set your 2027 housing allowance
The three numbers, how to build the amount, what to ask your board for, and the one-page resolution they adopt. Before the December meeting, not after.
Read the guideWhat counts as a housing expense?
The one standard the rule gives, what pastors commonly count, the few things that never count, and the gray areas. For the receipts, not the guessing.
Read the guideFair Rental Value, explained for a pastor who owns the home
It is rent, not home value. How to figure it, why it can cap your housing allowance, and how to document it before the board meets.
Read the guideFiling a minister’s tax return, step by step
The church W-2, the housing allowance and any excess, Schedule SE, and five things to check in tax software before you press file.
Read the guideForm 4361: should a minister opt out of Social Security?
Who qualifies, the deadline in your second year, why it can never be undone, and what it changes for retirement. A conviction, not a savings plan.
Read the guideThe housing allowance in retirement
It does not end with the last sermon. Which retirement income can be designated, the limits that still apply, and the rollover that quietly ends it.
Read the guideThe housing allowance worksheet
Fill in the three numbers, see your ceiling add up, and print one page for your board or your preparer. No account, nothing saved.
Open the worksheetYou Paid Off the House. Now What?
Your allowance shrank — it didn’t die. Four honest strategies for the paid-off years, including the one move that beats them all.
Read the guideHow we calculate Fair Rental Value
Every adjustment behind your estimate — its exact size and the evidence for it. Published in full, so your number is one you can defend.
See the methodFree to read. No account, no mailing list.
Every guide here is open — read them whenever you like, share them with a colleague or your treasurer, and come back as often as you need. An account only enters the picture when you want to put the guides to work: the three-number check, your Fair Rental Value estimate, and the documents your board and CPA will ask for. That account is free too, and it takes one emailed code.
Start with the Playbook Take the two-minute checkup
Run the church office? The treasurer's page covers the clergy W-2, the board resolution, voluntary withholding and the accountable plan.