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Airmen schedule terminal leave up to their DOS while still drawing full pay and benefits. Figure out how much of your accrued leave to take as terminal leave versus sell back (up to the 60-day career cap), timed to your Date of Separation (DOS).
How many days you can take, how many you have to sell, when your terminal leave starts, and the honest money trade between taking it and selling it back. Run your own numbers.
Start from a common scenario:
Your projected leave days when you separate. You can take more than 60 days of terminal leave; only selling is capped at 60 for a career.
So we can work out your terminal-leave start date and how many days you can actually take.
Sold leave pays base pay only (1/30 per day). BAH/BAS aren't part of sell-back and don't change the decision — you draw them until separation either way.
If you'll start a civilian job while on terminal leave, you collect both — that's the real money edge of taking leave.
Add your separation date above for the exact split and your terminal-leave start date. Until then, this assumes you could take your whole balance.
You CAN take (paid days off)
45 days
or sell them for cash — your call
You MUST sell (can't take in time)
0 days
$0 after 22% withholding
+$4,618
extra cash (45 days × base pay, after 22% withholding), on top of the $0 you're already selling. You work those days instead of taking them off.
45 paid days
You keep full pay + BAH + BAS + TRICARE regardless. Value is the time itself — relocate, decompress, job-hunt. If you start a civilian job during terminal leave, you collect that salary on top of your military pay.
Bottom line: selling your takeable days nets about $4,618. Taking them off is worth the paid time (and any civilian income you'd earn during it). If that's worth more to you than $4,618, take the leave; if not, sell.
Your take/sell split, the sell-back cash, and your terminal-leave start date, sent to your inbox so you have it when you sit down with finance. Free.
Or create a free account to save your results and track your progress across devices. Always free.
Your pay and TRICARE don't change with the decision.
You're on active duty until your separation date whether you take terminal leave or work and sell it. Base pay, BAH, BAS, and TRICARE all run until that same day either way. Selling does not end your healthcare or allowances early — that's the myth to ignore.
Selling is extra cash for working the days.
Sold leave pays 1/30 of base pay per day (no BAH, no BAS), withheld at ~22% (state varies; it's withholding, not final tax). It's money on top of your normal paycheck, in exchange for working those days instead of taking them off. You can sell at most 60 days across your whole career.
The real decision: cash vs. time.
For every day you could take off: sell it for base pay (taxed), or take it as a paid day off. The one thing that can make taking leave clearly worth more in dollars is starting a civilian job during it — you collect civilian pay and military pay for those days. Add your civilian salary above to see it.
You can be forced to sell.
If you have more leave than days left before you separate, you physically can't take it all — the excess must be sold (up to 60), and anything past that is lost. That's the split this tool solves.
Estimates only. Confirm your exact balance, sell-back history, and dates with your finance office. Sell-back is capped at 60 days for a career under 37 U.S.C. 501.
The leave rules are DoD-wide, so the math is the same for every branch, but you time it to your Date of Separation (DOS). During terminal leave you remain on active duty and draw full pay and benefits, so many Air Force members job-hunt, move, or even start a civilian job before their DOS date. Coordinate the dates with your MPF/Force Support Squadron and the transition assistance office.
The alternative is selling unused leave for a lump sum. Sold-back leave pays base pay only (no BAH or BAS) and is capped at 60 days over your whole career. Taking leave is usually worth more per day, which is why the calculator above helps you find the split.
Want the full breakdown and options? See the main Terminal Leave Calculator guide.
The leave rules are DoD-wide and identical across branches. These pages add your branch's own separation terminology and out-processing context.