Incentive and Special Pay
HIGH DEPLOYMENT ALLOWANCE
Types of Incentive and Special Pay:
Servicemembers who are deployed 401 days or more out of the preceding 730 days are entitled to additional pay, which includes operations, exercises, unit training, home station training, and mission support TDY.
Below are additional points to consider for eligibility:
- Leave in conjunction with a deployment will not count as days away from home.
- A member is considered deployed if he/she is hospitalized away from permanent duty.
- A member is not considered deployed if he/she is hospitalized at the permanent duty station.
A rate payable for High Deployment Per Diem is $100 for each day over 401 days out of the preceding 730.
Combat Zone Tax Exclusion for High Deployment Allowance
If you are a Service Member serving in a combat zone (any area the President of the United States designates by Executive Order as an area in which the U.S. Armed Forces are engaging or have engaged in combat), you are able to exclude portions of your income from federal and state taxation. This does not mean the Service Member will not owe any taxes. While the federal government excludes all military pay from being taxed, some states allow only partial exclusion or none at all. If you serve in a combat zone for one or more days during a particular month, you are entitled to an exclusion for that entire month.
If you are an enlisted member, warrant officer, or commissioned warrant officer and you serve in a combat zone during any part of a month, all of your military pay for that month is excluded from your taxable income.
While Hospitalized
Military pay earned while hospitalized as a result of wounds, disease, or injury incurred in the combat zone are also excluded from taxable income. The exclusion of military pay while hospitalized does not apply to any month that begins more than 2 years after the end of combat activities in that combat zone. Hospitalization does not have to be in the combat zone.
