{"id":20577,"date":"2017-06-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resource-center.hrblock.com\/"},"modified":"2023-08-29T08:30:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T13:30:58","slug":"nontaxable-combat-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrbcomlnp.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/income\/other-income\/nontaxable-combat-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Nontaxable Combat Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a member of the U.S. armed forces who serves in a combat zone, you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Might qualify to exclude certain pay from your income<\/li>\n<li>Have more time to make a qualified contribution to an IRA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both of these must apply for a place to be considered a combat zone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s an area where U.S. armed forces are engaging in or have engaged in combat.<\/li>\n<li>The area is designated as a combat zone by a presidential executive order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Combat zone income<\/b><\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t have to report income received during service in a combat zone as gross income.<\/p>\n<p>For any month you served in a combat zone, you don&#8217;t have to report these types of income:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Active duty pay<\/li>\n<li>Imminent-danger pay and hostile-fire pay<\/li>\n<li>Reenlistment bonus<\/li>\n<li>Pay for accrued, unused leave, as determined by the Department of Defense<\/li>\n<li>Pay for duties as a member of the armed forces in:\n<ul>\n<li>Clubs<\/li>\n<li>Messes<\/li>\n<li>Post and station theaters<\/li>\n<li>Other non-appropriated fund activities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Awards for suggestions, inventions, or scientific achievements. This applies if you made your submission in a month you served in a combat zone.<\/li>\n<li>Student loan repayments if you served in a combat zone in the year of service required to earn the repayment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a commissioned officer, the combat pay exclusion for any month is limited to the total of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The highest rate of enlisted pay<\/li>\n<li>Hostile-fire pay<\/li>\n<li>Imminent-danger pay<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This limit doesn&#8217;t apply to commissioned warrant officers.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t claim an exclusion for combat pay on your return. The excludable amount shouldn&#8217;t be in your W-2, Box 1 wages. If an excludable amount is in your Box 1 wages, you should get a corrected W-2. Nontaxable combat pay will usually be shown on your W-2, Box 12 with code Q.<\/p>\n<p>If you served in a combat zone for one or more days in a particular month, you&#8217;re allowed the above exclusions for that entire month. Combat zone service includes periods when you&#8217;re:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Absent from duty due to illness, wounds, or leave<\/li>\n<li>A prisoner of war or missing in action, if that status is kept for military-pay purposes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In some cases, you can also exclude military pay earned while hospitalized after leaving a combat zone. Your hospitalization must be due to a wound, disease, or injury incurred while you were serving in a combat zone.<\/p>\n<p><b>Combat zone considerations<\/b><\/p>\n<p>For tax purposes, military service outside a combat zone is treated the same as inside a combat zone if both of these apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Department of Defense determines the service is in direct support of combat zone military operations.<\/li>\n<li>The service qualifies you for special military pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&#8217;re not considered to be in a combat zone if any of these apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;re in a combat zone during leave from a duty station located outside the combat zone.<\/li>\n<li>You pass over or through a combat zone during a trip between two points outside a combat zone.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re in a combat zone only for your personal convenience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To learn more, see these tax tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Military Income Inclusions<\/li>\n<li>Military Income Exclusions<\/li>\n<li>Military Moving Expenses<\/li>\n<li>Military Extensions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a member of the U.S. armed forces who serves in a combat zone, you: Might qualify to exclude certain pay from your income Have more time to make a qualified contribution to an IRA Both of these must apply for a place to be considered a combat zone: It&#8217;s an area where U.S. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-income","category-other-income"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>Nontaxable Combat Pay | H&amp;R Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn more about combat pay 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