For small-church treasurers and bi-vocational pastors
You said yes to serving your church — not to becoming a tax expert.
Steward gives you two simple tools for the minister’s housing allowance: a free calculator that shows what’s actually excludable, and a generator that drafts a board-ready designation resolution for your church.
If you keep the books for a small church — as a volunteer, or as the pastor after hours — you already know clergy pay rules are genuinely confusing. Dual tax status. Housing allowance limits. Board paperwork with timing rules of its own. None of it is intuitive, and yet getting it right protects both your pastor and your church. That’s the work these tools are built to make easier.
The tools
Two tools. One job: the housing allowance, done right.
Housing Allowance Calculator
Enter your numbers and see the three limits side by side — and what’s actually excludable — explained in plain English. When you’re done, print a clean summary for your records and your board.
Board Resolution Generator
Answer a few questions and get a board-ready resolution as a PDF and an editable DOCX, plus a companion expense worksheet for your minister. Preview the full document free with a watermark before you pay.
Before you begin
The basics, in plain English
A few things every church treasurer should know about how ministers are paid. No jargon, no fine print.
Two hats, two tax systems
Ministers have a dual tax status: they are employees for federal income tax, but self-employed for Social Security and Medicare (SECA). That means the church should not withhold FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes from a minister's pay.
In writing, in advance
A designation only counts if it is in writing, in advance, by board action. It can never be retroactive — a mid-year designation applies to future pay only.
The housing allowance and SECA
Heads up: the housing allowance is NOT excluded from self-employment (SECA) tax. It still counts as earnings when the minister figures Social Security and Medicare through SECA.
What shows up on the W-2
On the minister's W-2, the housing allowance is excluded from Box 1 wages. It is typically reported in Box 14 as an informational note only.
What this is — and what it isn’t
Steward is an educational and document-drafting tool — not tax, legal, or accounting advice.
Every church's situation is different. Please have your tax professional review anything you create with Steward before you rely on it.
No payroll, no filings, no money moving through Steward — just clear explanations and documents you can take to your board and your tax professional.