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BAH and BAS are tax-free, they are a big share of what you actually take home, and they stop the day you separate. This shows what your month really looks like on the other side, including VA pay and retired pay, and what salary you would need to break even. Free, on your device, no account.
Sources: DFAS — 2026 military pay tables, TRICARE — 2026 costs and fees, VA — VGLI premium rates, VA — 2026 disability compensation rates, IRS — allowances excluded from gross income (Pub 3)
From your LES.
Base pay comes from the 2026 DFAS tables and BAS is added automatically. Not sure of your BAH? Look it up by ZIP.
Taxable, but no FICA. Many states exempt it.
Not sure yet? The retirement calculator estimates it from your grade and years.
Health and life insurance are the two that catch people out, so they are priced for you.
VGLI is priced by age band.
Full amount. BAH no longer covers any of it.
BAS no longer covers part of this.
Monthly left over
$5,339.74
About $64,077 a year after everything above.
$7,291.21/mo
$10,026.99/mo
TRICARE enrolment fees are the fixed cost of staying enrolled. Deductibles, copays and the catastrophic cap are separate and depend on how much care you use, so they are not in this monthly figure.
Your $2,400/mo BAH stops at separation, so the housing line becomes fully out of pocket from taxed income.
What is taxed, and what is not. BAH and BAS are excluded from gross income, so they are added after tax here. VA compensation is never taxed. Retired pay is subject to federal income tax but notFICA, because it is not wages, and most states treat it differently from salary — many exempt it entirely. State treatment of retired pay comes from MTT's own state table, which is verified against each state's revenue department.
Not included: your terminal-leave lump sum, final settlement timing, the wait for your first VA payment, SBP premiums, TSP withdrawals, unemployment (UCX), and TRICARE deductibles and copays, which depend on how much care you use. Those are one-off or usage-driven, and folding them into a monthly number would make it less honest, not more complete.
Estimates for planning, not tax advice or a pay statement. Tax is calculated with 2026 federal brackets, the standard deduction, and a flat state rate, so it will not match a filed return. Free help is available from a no-cost financial counselor.
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Look at your LES. The base pay line is taxed. The BAH and BAS lines are not, because the IRS excludes them from gross income entirely. They never reach a W-2, so they never show up in any salary comparison you will ever do.
That is why the arithmetic feels wrong when you separate. An E-6 at twenty years draws about $5,268 of base pay a month, and with a $2,400 BAH plus BAS is taking home roughly $7,290 after tax. Matching that with a salary alone takes far more than $63,000, because the new salary has to pay rent and buy groceries out of taxed money. The pay calculator works out that target number. This page checks whether it survives contact with your actual bills.
VA compensation is the best dollar you will ever get. It is not taxed at any rating and never appears on a return. In the 22% bracket, $1,800 of VA pay does the work of roughly $2,300 of salary before state tax even enters it.
Retired pay is the second best. Federal income tax applies, but FICA does not, because it is not wages. That is 7.65% you keep that a salaried dollar loses. On top of that, a good number of states exempt military retirement pay outright.
Salary is the worst dollar. Federal, FICA, and state all apply. It is still usually the biggest line, which is exactly why the mix matters more than the total.
Health cover. On active duty it is effectively free. As a retiree it becomes a TRICARE enrolment fee, plus deductibles and copays that depend on how much care you use. Separating without retiring means an employer or marketplace premium instead, and a family plan can run several hundred a month before anyone sees a doctor.
Life cover.SGLI is about $25 a month for $400,000. VGLI replaces it at rates banded by age that rise steeply as you get older, and the window to convert without proving you are healthy is limited. The calculator prices VGLI from the VA's published table, so put your real age in.
The financial cliff. That is the gap between your last military paycheck and your first civilian one, and it gets worse if your VA claim has not been decided. Terminal leave and your final settlement soften it, but VA back pay can take months. That is a one-off cash problem, and folding it into a monthly figure would hide both it and your steady-state position. Plan the monthly number here, then plan the cliff separately with savings. The claim deadline tracker helps you file early enough that the wait is shorter.
Because a large part of military pay is tax-free and invisible in a salary comparison. BAH and BAS are excluded from gross income, so they never appear on a W-2 and never get taxed. A civilian salary has to cover your rent and your food out of money that has already been taxed. That is why a service member earning a $63,000 base can find a $85,000 offer feels tighter, not looser.
No. VA disability compensation is not taxable income at any rating, and it does not appear on a tax return. That makes it the most valuable dollar in a post-separation budget: a $1,800 VA payment is worth roughly what $2,300 of salary is worth in the 22% bracket, before state tax. This calculator adds it undiminished for that reason.
Federal income tax applies, but FICA does not, because retired pay is not wages. That alone makes it worth about 7.65% more than the same amount of salary. State treatment varies widely, and many states exempt military retirement pay entirely or up to a cap. This calculator uses MTT's own state table, which is verified against each state's revenue department, rather than applying a single flat rate.
Health and life insurance, in that order. TRICARE is nearly free on active duty and becomes an enrolment fee plus deductibles and copays as a retiree, or an employer premium if you separate without retiring. SGLI costs about $25 a month for $400,000 of coverage; VGLI replaces it at age-banded rates that climb steeply, and the window to convert without a medical exam is limited. Both are priced for you above from published DoD and VA figures.
The gap between your last military paycheck and your first civilian one, made worse if your VA claim has not been decided yet. Terminal leave and your final settlement can cover part of it, but VA back pay can take months. This calculator deliberately models the steady monthly state after everything is running, not that gap, because mixing a one-off shortfall into a monthly figure hides both. Plan for the cliff separately, with cash.
No, they answer different questions and work best together. The military-to-civilian pay calculator works out what salary matches your current compensation, which is the number you negotiate with. This one takes that salary and shows whether it actually covers your month once your costs are real. Use the pay calculator to set a target, then this one to sanity-check it.
Close enough to plan with and not close enough to file with. It uses 2026 federal brackets, the standard deduction, employee-side FICA with the Social Security wage base, and a flat state rate. It does not model itemised deductions, credits, dependents for tax purposes, retirement contributions, or multi-state income. Treat the output as a direction, and take a real return to a tax professional or a free VITA site.
Rates verified against DFAS, TRICARE, VA and IRS publications in September 2026, sources linked above. Estimates for planning, not tax advice and not a pay statement. Free, no-cost financial counselling is available to service members and veterans through these programs.