If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces who serves in a combat zone, you may exclude certain pay from your income. You do not actually need to show the exclusion on your tax return because income that qualifies for the exclusion is not included in the wages reported on your Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement.

If you need help reporting combat pay in the TaxAct program, go to our Earned Income Credit – Entering Combat Pay for Calculation FAQ.

How Do I Report the Combat Pay Exclusion?

Ordinarily, you do not have to do anything for this exclusion to apply. The exclusion will be reflected on your Form W-2. The wages shown in box 1 of your Form W-2 shouldn’t include military pay excluded from your income under the combat zone exclusion provisions. If it does, you will need to get a corrected Form W-2 from your finance office. You cannot exclude as combat zone pay any wages shown in box 1 of Form W-2. See also Disability Severance Payments to Veterans, later, for special rules relating to severance pay.

See IRS Publication 3 Armed Forces’ Tax Guide for more information.

If you elect to report nontaxable combat pay (for the Earned Income Credit calculation, for example), the amount is entered on Form W-2, Box 12 in TaxAct. To enter military wages reported on a W-2, see Form W-2 – E-Filing with Nontaxable Combat Pay.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the webpage or document at the time it is accessed.