tax question?

Question

Any one have an idea of what kind of tax return a E4 in the army who had been deployed for 6 months of the year over there.

any one have a idea what kind of tax return to expect for a E4 in the service who is filing married filling seperate. Who spent 6 moths of the year over there.

Answer 1

The government sets up your w-2 to separate your combat pay from regular pay. Combat pay is tax exempt and will be in box 12 of your W-2 with a letter Q. You would file as normal. Which form would depend on your situation. You should talk to someone before filing married filing separate. It is usually better to file married filing jointly, if you could work something out with your spouse.

Answer 2

I believe that combat pay is excluded as income for income tax purposes, depending on your dates of deployment you can exclude that part of you pay - for example, if you were deployed in February, 06 you could exclude 6/12ths of your army pay; however, if you were deployed in November, 05, you could only exclude 4/12ths of your army pay.

You may have to file an amended return for 05 to get some money back. Call or visit your local IRS office, they'll be glad to answer any and all questions.

Answer 3

There's not enough information here to give any kind of estimate. Would need to know at a minimum total income for the year, how much was withheld, how much was made while deployed and where the deployment was (combat zone or not), number of dependents if any other than self.

Answer 4

See www.IRS.gov for help.