Combat Zone Exclusion(p8)

If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces who serves in a combat zone (defined later), you can exclude certain pay from your income. This pay is generally referred to as "combat pay." You do not actually need to show the exclusion on your tax return because income that qualifies for the combat zone exclusion is not included in the wages reported on your Form W-2. (See Form W-2, later.)

The month for which you receive the pay must be a month in which you either served in a combat zone or were hospitalized as a result of wounds, disease, or injury incurred while serving in the combat zone. You do not have to receive the excluded pay while you are in a combat zone, are hospitalized, or in the same year you served in a combat zone.

If you are an enlisted member, warrant officer, or commissioned warrant officer, you can exclude the following amounts from your income. (Other officer personnel are discussed under Amount of Exclusion, later.)

• Active duty pay earned in any month you served in a combat zone.
• Imminent danger/hostile fire pay.
• A reenlistment bonus if the voluntary extension or reenlistment occurs in a month you served in a combat zone.
• Pay for accrued leave earned in any month you served in a combat zone. The Department of Defense must determine that the unused leave was earned during that period.
• Pay received for duties as a member of the Armed Forces in clubs, messes, post and station theaters, and other nonappropriated fund activities. The pay must be earned in a month you served in a combat zone.
• Awards for suggestions, inventions, or scientific achievements you are entitled to because of a submission you made in a month you served in a combat zone.
• Student loan repayments. If the entire year of service required to earn the repayment was performed in a combat zone, the entire repayment made because of that year of service is excluded. If only part of that year of service was performed in a combat zone, only part of the repayment qualifies for exclusion. For example, if you served in a combat zone for 5 months, 5/12 of your repayment qualifies for exclusion.

Retirement pay and pensions do not qualify for the combat zone exclusion.

If you serve in a combat zone for any part of one or more days during a particular month, you are entitled to an exclusion for that entire month.

The wages shown in box 1 of your 2009 Form W-2 should not 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 pay any wages shown in box 1 of Form W-2.

A combat zone is 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. An area usually becomes a combat zone and ceases to be a combat zone on the dates the President designates by Executive Order.

By Executive Order No. 13239, Afghanistan (and airspace above) was designated as a combat zone beginning September 19, 2001.

By Executive Order No. 13119, the following locations (including air space above) were designated as a combat zone beginning March 24, 1999.

• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro).
• Albania.
• The Adriatic Sea.
• The Ionian Sea—north of the 39th parallel.

By Executive Order No. 12744, the following locations (and airspace above) were designated as a combat zone beginning January 17, 1991.

• The Persian Gulf.
• The Red Sea.
• The Gulf of Oman.
• The part of the Arabian Sea that is north of 10 degrees north latitude and west of 68 degrees east longitude.
• The Gulf of Aden.
• The total land areas of Iraq , Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

You are considered to be serving in a combat zone if you are either assigned on official temporary duty to a combat zone or you qualify for hostile fire/imminent danger pay while in a combat zone.

Service in a combat zone includes any periods you are absent from duty because of sickness, wounds, or leave. If, as a result of serving in a combat zone, a person becomes a prisoner of war or is missing in action, that person is considered to be serving in the combat zone so long as he or she keeps that status for military pay purposes.

If you are hospitalized while serving in a combat zone, the wound, disease, or injury causing the hospitalization will be presumed to have been incurred while serving in the combat zone unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.

You are hospitalized for a specific disease in a combat zone where you have been serving for 3 weeks, and the disease for which you are hospitalized has an incubation period of 2 to 4 weeks. The disease is presumed to have been incurred while you were serving in the combat zone. On the other hand, if the incubation period of the disease is 1 year, the disease would not have been incurred while you were serving in the combat zone.

In some cases, the wound, disease, or injury may have been incurred while you were serving in the combat zone, even though you were not hospitalized until after you left. In that case, you can exclude military pay earned while you are hospitalized as a result of the wound, disease, or injury.

You were hospitalized for a specific disease 3 weeks after you left the combat zone. The incubation period of the disease is from 2 to 4 weeks. The disease is presumed to have been incurred while serving in the combat zone.

None of the following types of military service qualify as service in a combat zone.

• Presence in a combat zone while on leave from a duty station located outside the combat zone.
• Passage over or through a combat zone during a trip between two points that are outside a combat zone.
• Presence in a combat zone solely for your personal convenience.

Military service outside a combat zone is considered to be performed in a combat zone if:

• The Department of Defense designates that the service is in direct support of military operations in the combat zone, and
• The service qualifies you for special military pay for duty subject to hostile fire or imminent danger.

Military pay received for this service will qualify for the combat zone exclusion if all of the requirements (other than service in a combat zone) are met and the pay is verifiable by reference to military pay records.

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, you can exclude all of your military pay for that month. It should not be included in the wages reported on your Form W-2. You also can exclude military pay earned while you are hospitalized as a result of wounds, disease, or injury incurred in the combat zone. If you are hospitalized, you cannot exclude any military pay received for any month of service that begins more than 2 years after the end of combat activities in the combat zone. Your hospitalization does not have to be in the combat zone.

If you are a commissioned officer (other than a commissioned warrant officer), you can exclude your pay according to the rules just discussed. However, the amount of your exclusion is limited to the highest rate of enlisted pay (plus imminent danger/hostile fire pay you received) for each month during any part of which you served in a combat zone or were hospitalized as a result of your service there.