President Trump signed the Clergy Act on October 20, giving ministers who once opted out of Social Security a two-year window to opt back in. The window begins with tax years after 2028, so no one can act on it this tax season. The White House listed H.R. 227 among ten bills signed that Tuesday.
An opt-in window for ministers who gave up coverage
The White House summary says H.R. 227 “allows a 2-year period in which ministers of a church” may apply to the Internal Revenue Service to revoke their exemption from Social Security coverage. The same relief extends to members of a religious order and Christian Science practitioners. Revoking the exemption puts them back inside the system.
Ministers are treated as self-employed for Social Security purposes. The IRS explains in Publication 517 that a minister who is conscientiously opposed to public insurance for religious reasons can file Form 4361 for an exemption from self-employment tax. The request is due by the return deadline for the second year in which the minister had at least $400 in net self-employment earnings, including some from ministry. Once approved, the IRS says, the exemption is irrevocable, and this law is a rare exception to that rule.
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who sponsored the Senate version with Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, said clergy “should have the opportunity to enroll back in Social Security, and now they will.” The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent on September 30, and the House had passed it earlier in the year by 350 to 5.
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Which tax years the window covers
The bill text that passed the House sets the dates. An eligible minister can apply to revoke the exemption by the due date of the federal return, with extensions, for the second taxable year beginning after December 31, 2028, according to the text on the Government Publishing Office site. For a calendar-year filer, that is the 2030 return.
The revocation can take effect in either the first or the second taxable year beginning after December 31, 2028, as the applicant chooses. For a calendar-year filer that means 2029 or 2030. It then applies to every later year. The new coverage applies to service performed in those years and after.
Only ministers whose exemption is in effect for the year the law is enacted qualify. The applicant files in the form and manner the IRS prescribes, with the official the IRS designates. The bill leaves the form and the process to the IRS, so ministers will need to watch for IRS instructions before any filing is possible.
What opting back in costs
A minister who revokes the exemption begins paying self-employment tax on ministerial earnings. The IRS puts the combined rate at 15.3 percent, made up of 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare, applied to net earnings of about 92.35 percent of net profit. The Social Security portion stops at the annual wage base.
As an illustration of the rate math, a minister with $50,000 in net ministerial profit would have net earnings of about $46,175 and owe roughly $7,065 in self-employment tax. That is on top of income tax, because a salaried minister is still treated as an employee for income tax purposes.
The choice is also final. The bill says that after a revocation, the person may not apply for the exemption again. It also sets a penalty for filing late: an application filed after the due date for the year it covers must come with full payment of the self-employment tax that would have applied to that year’s net earnings.
What the change means for retirement benefits
The point of opting back in is benefits. According to the House-passed text, a revocation affects Social Security benefits based on that income, starting in the calendar year it takes effect, including lump-sum death payments. A minister who never paid in has no earnings record from that work to draw on.
The House Ways and Means Committee’s one-page summary says roughly 2,000 clergy receive the exemption each year and that the decision cannot be reversed under current law. It notes that a similar two-year window was set up in 1999 under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act.
The bill also gives the IRS and Social Security a job. Within 90 days of enactment, the IRS commissioner, consulting the Social Security commissioner, must send the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees a plan for telling eligible clergy about the right to revoke. With a signing date of October 20, that deadline falls in mid-January 2027.
For a minister weighing the choice, the open question is whether years of higher tax now buy a larger check later. The answer depends on earnings, on how many years remain before claiming and on what a spouse’s record already provides.
Opting back in: what does a claiming age look like later?
The stake for a minister who opts back in is paying 15.3 percent now for a check that depends on when it is claimed. Claiming at the wrong age can wipe out years of the extra tax in lost benefits.
The kit does not cover the clergy window itself. The Social Security Claiming & Family Benefits Kit covers the decision that follows, with a claiming calculator (Excel) for claiming age, break-even and survivor benefits and the 2026 earnings-test rules. The five-tab calculator shows what waiting is worth at each age.
Get the claiming-age calculator and large-print quick-start guide →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
