Are You a Military Person – Few Tax Tips for You

Taxes, their calculation and their filing procedures vary from one profession to the other. If you own a business you might need to spend a good amount of time with your CPA or accountant so that an error free return can be filed else you would need to hire an experienced tax attorney. You would be entitled to several tax credits and tax relief options. However, if you are a military person the filing procedures and tax relief would quite different from that of the business owners and self employed tax payers.

For active Military member, there is a specific act known as Service members civil relief act (SCRA). As per this act, on duty military personnel can avail several benefits. The day you receive the orders for active duty, Your SCRA starts. For military personnel state income taxes would be included, if they are non-residential servicemen or women. For example if you are working as military personnel in “X” state then the state government can’t impose income taxes on your wages. Moreover, state tax liability can’t be increased for the spouse of the servicemen or women with the inclusion of service member’s income. So, if your spouse is working then you don’t need to pay any extra income tax to the state government.

As a service member, you have a flexibility to delay the payment for your income tax. However, it doesn’t mean that you can delay the payment in any and every condition. You get this flexibility only when on active duty for up to 180 days after the termination of the duty. At times, you get relief on your travel expenses as well. But every travel expenses are not included in this. You can only claim for the travel expenses that have been spent under military responsibilities that too if you have traveled for more than 100 miles from your residence. To avail the claim of the travel expenses, you should file the expenses under miscellaneous deduction.

You can get much exclusion in your income taxes. If you are enjoying military benefits and pay, you are eligible for the exclusion from income of military taxpayers. You are also entitled to deduct the interest on real estate and mortgage taxes. Even if you have you have used BAH to pay the expenses, you can avail the deductions on the interest. Being military personnel, you can also avail some tax credits. Child tax credit is one of the most common one. To get this tax credit your kid must be under the age of 17 by the end of the financial year. You can reduce your tax liability by availing claim for the expenses on the education of your kid. If your tax liability is zero, you can get tax credit as refund.