Who Built This
My name is Ronald K. Carroll — most people call me Kevin. I'm a board-certified emergency medicine physician (DO) and a Major in the US Army Reserve, serving as a 62A (Field Surgeon). I've been getting a military paycheck long enough to know that the relationship between your pay grade, your duty station, your tax state, and your actual take-home is genuinely hard to figure out — and I still pull up my own Leave and Earnings Statement and double-check the math.
I built the first version of this site because I was doing the math manually in a spreadsheet — figuring out how a PCS move would affect BAH, what the BRS matching actually meant for TSP contributions, and how VA disability compensation interacted with retirement pay. The spreadsheet worked. A public calculator seemed more useful.
The calculators are based on official 2026 DFAS pay tables, DoD BAH rates, VA compensation schedules, and TSP contribution limits. Nothing here is scraped or approximate — I update them when DFAS or the VA publishes new numbers, which typically happens each January.
Why a Physician Built a Military Pay Site
Working in an emergency department, I see a lot of service members and veterans. Some of the financial stress I see — delayed care, deferred treatment, the kind of decisions people make when they're not sure they can afford something — comes from not fully understanding what compensation and benefits they're actually entitled to.
The GI Bill housing stipend, for instance, is often miscalculated. BAH rates are misunderstood as income when they're a tax-free allowance. VA disability ratings compound in a non-intuitive way that catches people off guard. These aren't obscure edge cases — they affect most of the people I know in uniform.
The site isn't a substitute for your finance office or a JAG officer. But it's a starting point that helps you know what questions to ask before you get there.
What the Calculators Cover
- Active duty base pay — all six branches, all pay grades, 2026 DFAS tables, with state income tax treatment by residency
- BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) — all 300+ military housing areas, with/without dependents, current DoD rate data
- GI Bill benefits — Chapter 33 housing stipend estimates, tuition entitlement, Yellow Ribbon interactions
- TSP retirement modeling — Blended Retirement System matching logic, contribution scenarios, projected balances
- VA disability compensation — combined rating calculations using the VA's "whole person" method, tax-free income modeling
- Guard and Reserve drill pay — weekend drill, AT orders, mobilization scenarios
- State-by-state military pay tax treatment — which states exempt active duty pay, which tax it, and which offer partial exemptions
How the Numbers Are Sourced
Every table in the calculators traces back to a specific government publication. Base pay comes from the DFAS military pay tables effective January 2026. BAH rates come from the DoD's official BAH rate lookup, published each year by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. VA disability rates come from the VA's published compensation tables. TSP limits come from IRS publications and TSP.gov.
State tax treatment is more complicated — tax law changes, and residency rules for military members under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (MSRRA) can override what a state's published rate suggests. The state pages on this site are planning guides, not tax opinions. When it matters, verify with your state's revenue department or a military tax professional.
If you find a number that's wrong or outdated, the contact page has a direct path to flag it. I review corrections personally.
Independence and Disclosures
Military Pay Guide is independent. No branch of the military, DFAS, the VA, or any government agency sponsors or endorses this site. The calculators are my interpretation of publicly available official data — useful for planning, not binding on any agency.
The site does carry Google AdSense advertising and contains some affiliate links (primarily to financial books and practical gear relevant to service members). Affiliate relationships don't influence the calculator formulas, the source data, or any editorial content. The affiliate disclosure page has the specifics.
I'm a physician, not a financial advisor or attorney. Nothing on this site is financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Decisions about retirement, disability claims, or tax filings should involve the appropriate professional or agency.
Editorial & Review Policy
This is a Your-Money-or-Your-Life topic, so here is exactly how content is produced and checked:
- Official sources first. Every pay table, BAH figure, BAS rate, VA compensation amount, and TSP limit traces to a DFAS, DoD, VA, IRS, or TSP.gov publication — never a third-party aggregator.
- Human review of every formula. AI tools may assist with drafting prose, but I personally review every calculator formula and every pay/tax figure against the primary source before it publishes. I'm the one who signs off.
- Named accountability. Guides carry my byline — MAJ Ronald K. Carroll, DO. If a number is wrong, you know exactly whose desk it lands on.
- Plain limits. State tax treatment and SCRA/MSRRA residency rules change and have exceptions; those pages are planning guides, not tax opinions. Where it matters, I say "verify with your state revenue department or a military tax professional."
- Corrections welcome. The contact page is the direct line to flag an error. I review correction requests personally and date every update.
Update Log
- Jan 2026 — Loaded 2026 DFAS basic pay tables (3.8% across-the-board raise); updated BAS to $476.95 (enlisted) / $328.48 (officer).
- Jan 2026 — Refreshed VA disability compensation rates (2026 COLA); 100% no-dependents rate updated to $3,831.30/mo.
- 2025–2026 — Rebuilt all 50 state pay pages with current active-duty, Guard/Reserve drill, and military-retirement tax treatment, reflecting recent state law changes (e.g. CA, VA, DE, NM, VT retirement exemptions).
- 2026 — Added worked-example comparison guides (E-5 TX vs CA, O-3 with BAH, BAH with/without dependents, after-tax by state, 2026 raise).