Loading...
What actually lands in your account. Basic pay, BAH and BAS on one side; federal tax, FICA and TSP on the other. BAH and BAS are not taxed, and this shows you exactly what that is worth.
Sources: 2026 military pay tables, BAH by ZIP and dependent status, IRS: allowances excluded from gross income
Estimated monthly take-home
$6,373.46
$76,481.48 a year, from $7,336.45 a month gross.
| Basic pay (taxable) | $4,759.50 |
| BAH (tax-free) | $2,100.00 |
| BAS (tax-free) | $476.95 |
| Gross | $7,336.45 |
| Federal income tax | -$360.92 |
| FICA (Social Security + Medicare) | -$364.10 |
| TSP contribution | -$237.98 |
| Take-home | $6,373.46 |
35.13% of your pay is never taxed
You pay 9.88% of your total compensation in tax. Measured against taxable pay alone it looks like 15.23%. That gap is BAH and BAS, and it is why a civilian salary has to be noticeably higher than your gross to match it. Worth knowing before you compare an offer: $88,037 gross here is not the same as $88,037 of salary.
Estimate using 2026 pay tables and 2026 federal brackets. It does not model special and incentive pays, combat-zone tax exclusion, dependent credits, or the government TSP match. Your LES is authoritative.
A recruiter, a civilian hiring manager and your own LES will all quote you different numbers, and none of them is wrong. The reason is that a chunk of military compensation never passes through the tax system at all.
That matters most at exactly one moment: when you are holding a civilian offer and trying to work out whether it is a raise. Comparing the offer to your gross understates what you need, because the new salary is taxable all the way down. The calculator above gives you the tax-free share of your current pay so you can do that comparison honestly. When you get to the full picture, the transition budget calculator carries it through to what changes the month after you separate.
No. BAH is an allowance, not wages, so it is not subject to federal income tax, state income tax, or FICA. The same is true of BAS. That is why your take-home is a much larger share of your gross pay than a civilian comparing salaries would expect, and it is the single biggest thing people get wrong when they compare a military paycheque to a civilian offer.
Basic pay. Special and incentive pays are generally taxable too. Allowances, which is mainly BAH and BAS, are not. So if your gross is made up of basic pay plus allowances, only the basic pay part is exposed to income tax and FICA.
Traditional TSP lowers your federal taxable income now, so your federal withholding falls. It does not lower FICA: Social Security and Medicare are withheld on your full basic pay either way. Roth TSP lowers neither, because you are contributing money you have already paid tax on. Both reduce your take-home today, because the money still leaves the paycheque.
More than your gross, usually. Because BAH and BAS are untaxed, a civilian salary has to cover both the pay and the tax you would newly owe on the part that used to be an allowance. Run your numbers above to see what share of your pay is tax-free, then use that as the starting point rather than comparing gross to gross.
It depends on your state of legal residence, which is not necessarily where you are stationed. Several states have no income tax at all and a number of others specifically exempt active-duty pay. Check your own state before assuming, and set the rate to zero here only if you have confirmed it.
This is an estimate from the 2026 pay tables and 2026 federal brackets. It does not model special and incentive pays, the combat-zone tax exclusion, dependent credits, SGLI, dental, advances, garnishments, or the government TSP match. Your LES is authoritative; this is for planning and for comparing against a civilian offer.