Military Take-Home Pay Calculator

Gross to net — what actually reaches your account after federal and state tax, FICA, TSP and SGLI.

The senior enlisted adviser of a service draws a fixed rate regardless of longevity.
Sets your BAH.

Tax

Your state of legal residence — not necessarily where you are stationed. Under the SCRA you keep your home-of-record state while stationed elsewhere.

Deductions

Traditional contributions are pre-tax, so they reduce your taxable income as well as your take-home.

Fill in your grade, duty station and deductions, then press Calculate Take-Home Pay.

Why the tax is smaller than you expect

Only basic pay is taxable. BAH and BAS are excluded from gross income entirely — they never appear on your W-2, they do not push you into a higher bracket, and no FICA is charged on them.

For most service members that means the effective tax rate on total compensation lands well below the bracket their basic pay sits in. This calculator shows both figures, because the gap between them is the part that gets lost when people compare a military package to a civilian salary.

Estimates only, at the 2026 pay, tax and allowance tables. Federal tax is computed on annual basic pay less traditional TSP contributions, using the standard deduction and graduated brackets — it is an estimate of your annual liability, not the withholding your LES will show, which follows the W-4 tables and can differ substantially. State tax uses a single effective rate per state and ignores the military-pay exemptions that many states offer. Excludes special and incentive pays, bonuses, Roth TSP, allotments, AFRH and mid-month pay splits. Your LES and tax return are authoritative.