{"id":486,"date":"2011-07-20T13:37:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=486"},"modified":"2011-07-20T13:37:08","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T18:37:08","slug":"10-tips-to-ease-tax-time-for-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=486","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips to Ease Tax Time for Military"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Military personnel have some unique duties, expenses and transitions. Some<br \/>\nspecial tax benefits may apply when moving to a new base, traveling to a duty<br \/>\nstation, returning from active duty and more. These tips may put military<br \/>\nmembers a bit &#8220;at ease&#8221; when it comes to their taxes.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Moving Expenses<\/strong> If you are a member of<br \/>\nthe Armed Forces on active duty and you move because of a permanent change<br \/>\nof station, you can deduct the reasonable unreimbursed expenses of moving<br \/>\nyou and members of your household.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Combat Pay<\/strong> If you serve in a<br \/>\ncombat zone as an enlisted person or as a warrant officer for any part of<br \/>\na month, all your military pay received for military service that month is<br \/>\nnot taxable. For officers, the monthly exclusion is capped at the highest<br \/>\nenlisted pay, plus any hostile fire or imminent danger pay received.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extension of Deadlines<\/strong> The time for taking<br \/>\ncare of certain tax matters can be postponed. The deadline for filing tax<br \/>\nreturns, paying taxes, filing claims for refund, and taking other actions<br \/>\nwith the IRS is automatically extended for qualifying members of the<br \/>\nmilitary.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Uniform Cost and Upkeep<\/strong> If military regulations<br \/>\nprohibit you from wearing certain uniforms when off duty, you can deduct<br \/>\nthe cost and upkeep of those uniforms, but you must reduce your expenses<br \/>\nby any allowance or reimbursement you receive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Joint Returns<\/strong> Generally, joint<br \/>\nreturns must be signed by both spouses. However, when one spouse may not<br \/>\nbe available due to military duty, a power of attorney may be used to file<br \/>\na joint return.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Travel to Reserve Duty<\/strong> If you are a member of<br \/>\nthe US Armed Forces Reserves, you can deduct unreimbursed travel expenses<br \/>\nfor traveling more than 100 miles away from home to perform your reserve<br \/>\nduties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ROTC Students<\/strong> Subsistence allowances<br \/>\npaid to ROTC students participating in advanced training are not taxable.<br \/>\nHowever, active duty pay \u2013 such as pay received during summer advanced<br \/>\ncamp \u2013 is taxable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transitioning Back to<br \/>\nCivilian Life<\/strong><br \/>\nYou may be able to deduct some costs you incur while looking for a new<br \/>\njob. Expenses may include travel, resume preparation fees, and<br \/>\noutplacement agency fees. Moving expenses may be deductible if your move<br \/>\nis closely related to the start of work at a new job location, and you<br \/>\nmeet certain tests.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tax Help<\/strong> Most military<br \/>\ninstallations offer free tax filing and preparation assistance during the<br \/>\nfiling season.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Military personnel have some unique duties, expenses and transitions. Some special tax benefits may apply when moving to a new base, traveling to a duty station, returning from active duty and more. These tips may put military members a bit &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=486\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-individual","category-taxation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}