Introduction

This publication covers the special tax situations of active members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It does not cover military pensions or veterans' benefits or give the basic tax rules that apply to all taxpayers. For information on military pensions or veterans' benefits, see Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income. If you need the basic tax rules or information on another subject not covered here, you can check our other free publications.

For federal tax purposes, the U.S. Armed Forces includes commissioned officers and enlisted personnel in all regular and reserve units under control of the Secretaries of the Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Armed Forces also includes the Coast Guard. It does not include members of the U.S. Merchant Marine or the American Red Cross.

Members serving in an area designated or treated as a combat zone are granted special tax benefits. In the event an area ceases to be a combat zone (by Presidential Executive Order or by statute), we will do our best to notify you. Many of the relief provisions will end at that time.

Members serving in a qualified hazardous duty area designated by statute are afforded the same benefits as members serving in a combat zone designated by Executive Order.

Comments and suggestions. We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.

You can e-mail us while visiting our web site at www.irs.gov/help/email2.html.

You can write to us at the following address:

Internal Revenue Service
Technical Publications Branch
W:CAR:MP:FP:P
1111 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20224

We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number, including the area code, in your correspondence.

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