The Clergy Act Passed Congress. Should You Opt Back In?

Updated October 2, 2026. The Clergy Act has passed both the House and the Senate and now goes to the President. It is not yet law.

You were twenty-six. Newly licensed, maybe newly married, serving a church that could barely cover your salary. Someone told you that you didn’t have to pay Social Security on your ministry income. You filed Form 4361, the IRS approved it, and you haven’t paid in on your ministry earnings since.

Now you’re closer to sixty than thirty. And every time you sketch out retirement, there’s a gap where a Social Security check would have been.

For the first time in more than twenty-five years, Congress has voted to give you a way back. That part is good news. The real question is whether walking through that door is right for you, and that takes real numbers.

What Congress just did

The Clergy Act, H.R. 227, passed the House on April 27, 2026, by a vote of 350 to 5. I covered the House passage in June. On September 30, the Senate passed the same bill by unanimous consent, with no changes. Because both chambers passed identical text, it now goes to the President. Its sponsors in both parties have said they look forward to seeing it signed.

It isn’t law yet. But this is the right time to start thinking. Coverage can’t begin before your 2029 tax year, and the IRS still has to set up the filing process. You have time to work through this instead of rushing it.

Congress has done this before. Earlier windows opened in 1977, in 1986, and through the Ticket to Work Act of 1999, which closed in 2002. Nothing has opened since.

How the window would work

Who’s eligible

The bill covers ordained, commissioned, or licensed ministers, members of religious orders, and Christian Science practitioners who hold an exemption under Section 1402(e). In plain language, if you filed Form 4361 and the IRS approved it, this is for you. Your exemption has to be in effect for the tax year the Act becomes law.

The dates

You’d choose to come back in starting with either your 2029 tax year or your 2030 tax year. Your application would be due by the deadline for filing your 2030 federal income tax return, including extensions. For most pastors, that’s spring 2031, or fall 2031 with an extension.

One detail matters here. If you choose 2029 but file after your 2029 return was due, the bill requires you to pay the 2029 SECA tax with your application. Whichever year you pick, you pay for that year.

The IRS will create the form and the filing process. Within 90 days of enactment, the IRS, working with Social Security, has to give Congress a plan for notifying eligible ministers. There’s nothing to file today.

Three rules that don’t bend

It’s permanent. Once you revoke your exemption, you can never file for it again. This is a one-way door.

It doesn’t reach backward. You can’t buy back the years you were out. Those years stay at zero on your earnings record for ministry income. You pay in going forward, and benefits based on that new coverage start no earlier than the year your revocation takes effect.

You still need 40 credits. A retirement benefit on your own work record requires 40 Social Security credits, which usually means about ten years of covered work. The bill doesn’t shortcut that.

But here’s what a lot of pastors miss. Your Form 4361 only covered your ministry earnings. Social Security’s own rules say the exemption doesn’t block benefits based on other covered work. The jobs before you were called, the bivocational years, secular side work: nonministerial jobs and self-employment may already have earned you credits. Ministerial side work, like guest preaching or officiating weddings, falls under your exemption too. So check your Social Security record to see what actually counted. If you already have 20 credits, you’d need about five more years of covered earnings, not ten.

What it would cost you

This is where clergy taxes make your decision different from anyone else’s.

When you come back in, you pay SECA, the self-employment tax, on your ministry earnings. For SECA, those earnings include your salary and your housing allowance, or the fair rental value of a parsonage. The housing allowance you exclude from income tax is not excluded from SECA.

SECA is 15.3 percent, applied to 92.35 percent of your net ministry earnings. The 12.4 percent Social Security portion stops at the annual wage base, which is well above most pastors’ pay. The 2.9 percent Medicare portion has no cap. Below that limit, SECA works out to roughly 14.1 percent.

Here’s a simplified example. Say your salary and housing allowance together come to $60,000.

• SECA base: $60,000 × 92.35% = $55,410
• SECA: $55,410 × 15.3% = about $8,478 a year

You can deduct half of that when you figure your income tax, which softens it some. It’s still real money every year.

Because of your dual tax status, no Social Security or Medicare tax is withheld from your ministry pay. You’d cover SECA through extra voluntary income-tax withholding with your church or through quarterly estimated payments. If your church provides a SECA offset to help, that offset is taxable income to you and is itself subject to SECA. Many boards set next year’s budget in the fall, so if you’re leaning toward 2029, raise it with your board in 2028.

What you’d get back

The cost is easy to see. The benefit takes a little more work, and this is where the math can surprise a pastor coming in late.

Social Security’s benefit formula is weighted toward lower average earnings on purpose. It replaces 90 percent of the first slice of your average monthly earnings, then 32 percent of the next slice, then 15 percent above that. For 2026, that first slice is $1,286.

Your average is figured over your highest 35 years. If you have fewer than 35 years of covered earnings, zeros fill the remaining years. Those zeros lower your benefit. But because the formula replaces the first dollars of average earnings at the highest rate, even a short record can produce a meaningful check.

Here’s a simplified example. It assumes the same $60,000 pastor has no other covered earnings, works ten years under coverage, and claims at full retirement age, using the 2026 formula in today’s dollars:

• Ten years at $55,410 of covered earnings: $554,100
• Spread over 420 months (35 years): about $1,319 a month
• Benefit at full retirement age: 90% of $1,286, plus 32% of the remaining $33
• About $1,168 a month, or roughly $14,000 a year

Ten years of SECA at that level comes to about $84,780 before the income tax deduction. Counting from when benefits begin, and ignoring inflation and investment returns, about six years of benefits would equal what you paid in. After that, the benefit continues for life, with cost-of-living adjustments.

One more boundary on this example. It stops at ten years of covered earnings. Revocation is permanent, so if you keep serving, SECA continues on your ministry earnings, even after you reach 40 credits and even after you start collecting. Those later earnings can raise your benefit if they replace a lower year in your record, but they’re also more tax paid in.

If you already have a benefit coming from other work, the comparison changes. Weigh the extra benefit you’d gain by opting back in against the extra SECA you’d pay, not your whole retirement check against the tax.

That’s an illustration, not a projection. Your real number depends on your full earnings record, wage indexing, when you claim, and future law. But it shows why the math deserves a serious look.

And the retirement check isn’t the only thing that comes with it.

Medicare. Forty credits, on your own record or your spouse’s, generally gets you premium-free Medicare Part A. Without that, Part A comes with a monthly premium. At 30 to 39 credits, the premium is reduced.

Your spouse. A spouse with little or no work record of their own can generally receive up to half your full-retirement-age benefit if they claim at their own full retirement age. In this example, that’s up to about $584 a month.

Survivor protection. Once you’re fully insured, if you die first, your surviving spouse can receive up to your full benefit at their survivor full retirement age. A narrower protection can start sooner: if you’ve earned six credits in the three years before your death, benefits can be paid to your eligible children and to a spouse caring for them. For many opted-out pastors, survivor protection may be the strongest reason to look hard at the window.

Disability. Disability coverage generally requires recent work, about 20 credits in the last ten years for most people over 30, plus enough total credits for your age. Five years of covered work may satisfy the recent-work requirement, but older pastors may need more total credits before they qualify.

When opting back in may add less than you think

This decision isn’t automatic. A few situations change the math.

Your spouse has a strong work record. If you’d already receive a spousal benefit from your spouse’s record, your own new benefit doesn’t stack on top of it. Social Security pays your own benefit first and adds a spousal amount only if the spousal benefit is larger. Depending on the numbers, your new benefit might mostly replace a spousal benefit you’d have received anyway.

You can’t reach 40 credits. A pastor who’s 66 in 2029 with no secular credits would need covered earnings until about age 76 to qualify for a retirement benefit. Some pastors serve that long. Many don’t. Count your credits before you count on a benefit.

You’re already well funded. A solid pension, substantial 403(b)(9) savings, and good life insurance can cover much of what Social Security provides. The window can still make sense, especially for Medicare and survivor protection, but the gap you’re closing is smaller.

None of these are reasons to dismiss the Clergy Act. They’re reasons to run your own numbers instead of a colleague’s.

Settle the conscience question first

Form 4361 was never a financial election. To qualify, a minister has to be opposed, on religious grounds, to accepting public insurance for ministerial services, and the IRS says the exemption can’t be based on economic reasons. Some pastors signed it young, without fully weighing that requirement.

If your convictions have changed, this bill would give you a lawful, honest way to act on that. If they haven’t, you’re free to stay where you are. Either way, settle that question before you settle the numbers. It deserves to be treated as a matter between you and the Lord.

Run your own numbers before 2029

You have time. Use it well.

1. Pull your earnings record. Log into my Social Security and count your credits. Don’t guess.
2. Find your approved Form 4361. Keep the IRS-approved copy in your file.
3. Look at your spouse’s record. Their benefit, and how it interacts with yours, can change the answer.
4. Estimate both sides. Use your age, your credits, your combined salary and housing, and how long you expect to keep serving.
5. Plan the cash flow. Decide how you’d cover SECA, through voluntary withholding or quarterly estimates, and raise it with your board before that year’s budget is set.
6. Wait for the IRS form. Don’t file anything early.
7. Be careful who you ask. You’ll hear from people with a product that “beats Social Security.” Start with the IRS and Social Security for the rules. If someone recommends a product, ask how they’re paid and how it fits your situation.

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Count the cost, then decide

Jesus asked who would build a tower without first sitting down to count the cost (Luke 14:28). That’s the posture this decision deserves. Not panic, and not excitement. Arithmetic, prayer, and an honest conversation with your spouse.

This decision also doesn’t sit by itself. It touches your housing allowance, your 403(b), when you claim, and what your spouse would live on if you died first. If you want a quick read on where your whole picture stands, the 5-minute Financial Vitals checkup is a good place to start.

For years, the opt-out was a door that closed behind you. Congress has voted to open it again. Take the time to know whether you should walk through it.

Pastoral Finance is educational content for pastors and ministry leaders. It is not individualized financial, tax, or legal advice, and it is published independently of Legacy Path Advisors LLC. As of the date above, H.R. 227 has passed Congress but has not been signed into law. Benefit figures are simplified illustrations using 2026 Social Security formulas and are not projections of any individual’s benefit. Before acting, confirm your exemption status, your earnings record, and the current status of the law with a qualified tax professional who understands clergy taxation.