What the Calculators Estimate
Military Pay Guide estimates base pay, BAH, BAS, state income tax impact, federal withholding, FICA, TSP contributions, insurance deductions, Guard and Reserve drill pay, GI Bill housing allowance, TSP growth projections, and VA disability compensation. Results are planning estimates — useful for comparing duty stations, modeling a PCS move, or understanding how a rating change affects take-home. They are not official pay determinations.
Every calculation runs client-side in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted or stored. There are no accounts, no tracking of inputs, and no server-side logging of calculator sessions.
Primary Data Sources
The tables embedded in these calculators come directly from government publications. Here's specifically where each data set originates:
- DFAS Military Pay Tables — The Defense Finance and Accounting Service publishes updated pay tables each January when the annual pay raise takes effect. The 2026 tables reflect the 3.8% across-the-board increase authorized by Congress. Every base pay figure in the calculator uses these tables directly.
- DoD Military Compensation (militarypay.defense.gov) — The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness maintains this resource, which includes explanations of the military compensation system, BRS matching rules, and allowance structures used in the modeling.
- DoD BAH Rate Lookup — BAH rates for all 300+ military housing areas are published here annually. The calculator uses the with-dependent and without-dependent rates by pay grade and MHA (Military Housing Area) as published for 2026.
- VA Disability Compensation Rates — The VA publishes compensation tables organized by combined rating (0% through 100%) and dependency status. These tables are updated periodically with COLA adjustments and are the basis for the VA disability calculator.
- VA GI Bill Comparison Tool — The Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill housing stipend is based on the BAH rate for an E-5 with dependents at the school's duty location. This site models that stipend from the same DoD BAH tables used for the housing calculator.
- TSP Contribution Limits (TSP.gov) — The IRS sets annual contribution limits for the Thrift Savings Plan. The elective deferral limit for 2026 and the catch-up contribution limit for members 50+ are sourced from TSP.gov and IRS Publication 560.
How Military Pay Is Modeled
Base pay is a direct lookup from the DFAS pay table by pay grade (E-1 through O-10, plus warrant officers W-1 through W-5) and years of service. The tables use completed years as of the calculation date.
BAH is treated as a non-taxable housing allowance. The rate depends on pay grade, the military housing area of the duty station, and dependency status. Members without dependents receive the without-dependent rate; members with a dependent spouse, child, or other qualifying dependent receive the with-dependent rate. BAH is not income for federal or most state tax purposes and does not factor into adjusted gross income calculations.
BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsistence) is a flat monthly amount set separately for officers and enlisted members. It is also non-taxable. For 2026, the enlisted BAS rate is $477.55/month and the officer rate is $329.40/month. These are not pay-grade-dependent — they are the same for all enlisted members and all officers respectively.
Federal income tax is estimated using standard IRS withholding tables applied to taxable income (primarily base pay). The calculator uses married filing jointly or single rates based on the user's selection. It does not account for itemized deductions, dependent tax credits, or investment income — it is a paycheck planning estimate, not a tax return.
FICA (Social Security and Medicare taxes) applies to base pay and taxable special pays. It does not apply to BAH, BAS, or VA disability compensation.
TSP contributions under the Blended Retirement System include an automatic 1% DoD contribution after 60 days of service, plus government matching of up to 4% of base pay for members who contribute at least 5%. The matching formula is: 1% automatic + 1% for the first 3% the member contributes + 0.5% for each of the next 2%. The calculator models this matching logic against user-entered contribution percentages.
VA Disability Rating Math
The VA does not add disability ratings together arithmetically. It uses a "whole person" method: starting from 100% (the whole person), each successive rating is applied to the remaining able-bodied percentage. For example, a 50% rating leaves 50% remaining. A second 30% rating is applied to that remaining 50%, adding 15%, for a combined value of 65%. This rounds to the nearest 10% under VA rounding rules — so 65% rounds to 70%.
This is why two 50% ratings do not equal 100%, and why the combined rating is always lower than the arithmetic sum. The VA publishes the combined ratings table that implements this calculation. The VA disability calculator on this site replicates this method for up to six separate ratings.
VA compensation is entirely tax-free at the federal level and in all states. It does not count as income for federal tax purposes and does not affect earned income, FICA, or retirement calculations.
State Tax Treatment
State income tax treatment of military pay is not uniform and is genuinely complicated by federal law. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) generally protects active duty members from paying income tax in their state of duty station if it differs from their state of legal domicile (home of record). The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (MSRRA) extends similar protections to qualifying spouses.
The state pages on this site summarize the baseline treatment for residents in each state — what happens when you are domiciled in that state and on active duty orders there. They do not model the SCRA/MSRRA exception, which could substantially change the result for members stationed away from their home state.
States that fully exempt active duty military pay include Texas, Florida, Nevada, and about 20 others (those with no income tax or with a full military exemption). States that tax military pay at full rates include California, New York, and Virginia. Several states offer partial exemptions that phase out at higher income levels. These rules change — the state pages note the source and effective date for each summary.
For any state tax decision that matters — filing, withholding elections, domicile changes — verify with a military-aware tax professional or your installation's Legal Assistance office.
Limitations and What to Verify
These calculators are planning tools. Several things they do not model:
- Special and incentive pays — hazardous duty pay, flight pay, dive pay, hostile fire pay, and similar pays vary significantly and are not included in the base calculation. These can add hundreds to thousands per month for eligible members.
- Deployment tax exclusions — pay earned in a designated combat zone is partially or fully excluded from federal income tax. This can result in significantly lower withholding for deployed members.
- TRICARE and other benefit costs — TRICARE premiums vary by plan and coverage tier and are not modeled in the take-home estimates.
- State residency changes — if you recently changed your state of legal domicile or are considering a change, the tax impact may differ from what a single state page shows.
- High-3 legacy retirement — members who entered service before January 1, 2018 and did not opt into BRS are on the legacy High-3 retirement system. The retirement calculator pages note which system is being modeled.
For pay questions, DFAS myPay and your unit finance office are the authoritative sources. For benefit questions, your installation's Transition Assistance Program (TAP) or Veterans Service Organization (VSO) can walk through specifics.
Editorial Review and Corrections
Pages are reviewed when official sources publish updated rates — typically each January for pay tables and BAH, and periodically throughout the year for VA compensation rates. The last-reviewed date on each page reflects when the source data was last verified against official publications.
If you find a discrepancy between what a calculator shows and what DFAS, the VA, or your finance office shows, please use the contact page to flag it with the specific calculator, the input values that produced the discrepancy, and the official source showing the correct figure. Corrections are reviewed personally and posted quickly.