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Are There Filing, Tax Payment, and Other Extensions Specifically for Those in a Combat Zone or a Contingency Operation? — How Much Extra Time Do These Extensions Give Me?: Military Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Are There Filing, Tax Payment, and Other Extensions Specifically for Those in a Combat Zone or a Contingency Operation? — How Much Extra Time Do These Extensions Give Me?” within military taxes. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 3 (2025), Armed Forces' Tax Guide, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

The postponements for filing, tax payment, and the other actions listed under For Which Actions Are My Deadlines Extended, later, such as collection and examination actions, are specifically for persons in the Armed Forces in combat zones or contingency operations. As noted in some of our earlier discussions, these postponements are referred to as “extensions of deadlines.”

Are There Filing, Tax Payment, and Other Extensions Specifically for Those in a Combat Zone or a Contingency Operation? — How Much Extra Time Do These Extensions Give Me?

Your deadline for filing your return, paying your tax, claiming a refund, and taking other actions with the IRS is extended in two steps.

First, your deadline is extended for 180 days after the later of the following.

  1. The last day you are in a combat zone, have qualifying service outside of the combat zone, or serve in a contingency operation (or the last day the area qualifies as a combat zone or the operation qualifies as a contingency operation).

  2. The last day of any continuous qualified hospitalization (defined later) for injury from service in the combat zone or contingency operation or while performing qualifying service outside of the combat zone.

Second, in addition to the 180 days, your deadline is extended by the number of days that were left for you to take the action with the IRS when you entered a combat zone (or began performing qualifying service outside the combat zone) or began serving in a contingency operation. If you entered the combat zone or began serving in the contingency operation before the period of time to take the action began, your deadline is extended by the entire period of time you have to take the action. For example, you had 3½ months (January 1–April 15, 2025) to file your 2024 tax return. Any days of this 3½-month period that were left when you entered the combat zone (or the entire 3½ months if you entered the combat zone by January 1, 2025) are added to the 180 days when determining the last day allowed for filing your 2024 tax return.

Example 1.

Captain Margaret Jones, a resident of Maryland, entered Saudi Arabia on December 1, 2023. She remained there through March 31, 2025, when she departed for the United States. She wasn't injured and didn't return to the combat zone. The deadlines for filing Captain Jones' 2023, 2024, and 2025 returns are figured as follows.

  • The 2023 tax return. The deadline is January 12, 2026. The deadline is 286 days (180 plus 106) after Captain Jones' last day in the combat zone (March 31, 2024). The 106 additional days are the number of days in the 3½-month filing period that were left when she entered the combat zone (January 1–April 15, 2024).

  • The 2024 tax return. The deadline is January 10, 2026. The deadline is 285 days (180 plus 105) after Captain Jones' last day in the combat zone (March 31, 2025). The 105 additional days are the number of days in the 3½-month filing period that were left when she entered the combat zone (January 1–April 15, 2025).

  • The 2025 tax return. The deadline isn't extended because the 180-day extension period after March 31, 2025, plus the number of days left in the filing period when she entered the combat zone (108) ends on January 12, 2025, which is before the due date for her 2025 return (April 15, 2026).

Tip:

When the due date for doing any act for tax purposes—filing a return, paying taxes, etc.—falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date is delayed until the next business day.

Example 2.

You generally have 3 years from April 15, 2025, to file a claim for refund against your timely filed 2024 tax return. This means that your claim must normally be filed by April 17, 2028. However, if you serve in a combat zone from November 3, 2027, through March 23, 2028, and aren't injured, your deadline for filing that claim is extended 347 days (180 plus 167) after you leave the combat zone. This extends your deadline to March 30, 2029. The 167 additional days are the number of days in the 3-year period for filing the refund claim that were left when you entered the combat zone on November 3 (November 3, 2027–April 17, 2028).

Qualified hospitalization.

The hospitalization must be the result of an injury received while serving in a combat zone or a contingency operation. Qualified hospitalization means:

  • Any hospitalization outside the United States, and

  • Up to 5 years of hospitalization in the United States.

Example.

Petty Officer Leonard Brown's ship entered the Persian Gulf on January 5, 2024. On February 15, 2024, Petty Officer Brown, a resident of Maryland, was injured and was flown to a U.S. hospital. He remained in the hospital through April 21, 2025. The deadlines for filing Petty Officer Brown's 2023, 2024, and 2025 returns are figured as follows.

  • The 2023 tax return. The deadline is January 26, 2026. Petty Officer Brown has 280 days (180 plus 100 days) after his last day in the hospital (April 21, 2025) to file his 2023 return. The additional 100 days are the number of days in the 3½-month filing period that were left when he entered the combat zone (January 5–April 21, 2025).

  • The 2024 tax return. The deadline is February 2, 2026. Petty Officer Brown has 285 days (180 plus 105) after April 21, 2025, to file his 2024 tax return. The additional days are the number of days in the 2024 filing period that were left when he entered the combat zone (January 1–April 15, 2025).

  • The 2025 tax return. The deadline isn't extended because the 180-day extension period after April 21, 2025, plus the number of days left in the filing period when he entered the combat zone (105) ends on January 31, 2026, which is before the due date for his 2025 return (April 15, 2026).

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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