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Ministers themselves have one of the best income tax breaks on the books, one that's often manipulated by the people who need it least.
By federal law, the portion of a minister's pay designated as "housing allowance" is exempt from federal tax. When a minister comes to a new church, he or she negotiates the total amount of compensation and then the _minister_ decides how much of that compensation is going to be salary and how much untaxable housing allowance. I've seen ministers take 80 percent of their salary as housing allowance, tax-free. How do they do it? Usually they have a working spouse who makes good money.
But this is where it gets really sweet. The minister uses tax-free money to buy a new house, and filing jointly, also gets to deduct mortgage interest. But most of that deduction is applied to the income from the spouse, because the minister is making so little "income." So you get to make your payments with pre-tax money, _and_ still get hefty deductions to apply against the spouse's salary. Nice deal if you can get it. Fair? Definitely not.
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