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Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs): Military Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)” 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

Adjusted gross income (AGI) is your total income minus certain adjustments. The following adjustments are of particular interest to members of the Armed Forces.

Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)

An IRA generally includes a traditional IRA or Roth IRA.

Deductibility of Contributions to My IRA

Caution:

Deductible IRA contributions. You no longer need to be younger than age 70½ to take a deduction for your contributions to an IRA.

Generally, you can deduct the lesser of the contributions to your traditional IRA for the year or the general limit (or spousal IRA limit, if applicable). However, if you or your spouse was covered by an employer-maintained retirement plan at any time during the year for which contributions were made, you may not be able to deduct all of the contributions. The Form W-2 you or your spouse receives from an employer has a box used to indicate whether you were covered for the year. The “Retirement plan” box should have a mark in it if you were covered.

For purposes of a deduction for contributions to a traditional IRA, Armed Forces members (including reservists on active duty for more than 90 days during the year) are considered covered by an employer-maintained retirement plan. The "Retirement plan" box on your Form W-2 should have a mark in it. Your deduction for contributions to a traditional IRA may be subject to a phaseout. See Limit if Covered by Employer Plan in Pub. 590-A for more information.

As a military person, do I get additional time to make a contribution to my IRA?

Individuals serving in the U.S. Armed Forces or in support of the U.S. Armed Forces in designated combat zones have additional time to make a contribution to an IRA. For more information on this extension of deadline provision, see Are There Filing, Tax Payment, and Other Extensions Specifically for Those in a Combat Zone or a Contingency Operation, later. For more information on contributions to IRAs, see Pub. 590-A.

Is My Combat Zone Pay Included in IRA Calculations?

For IRA purposes, your compensation includes nontaxable combat zone pay. Even though you don't have to include the combat zone pay in your gross income, you do include it in your compensation when figuring the limits on contributions, and on deductions for contributions, to IRAs.

Treatment of Distributions (and Repayments of Distributions) From an IRA or Qualified Plan to Qualified Reservists

Is a QRD subject to the 10% additional tax?

A QRD, defined below, isn’t subject to the 10% additional tax on early distributions from certain retirement plans.

What is a QRD?

With reference to an IRA, a section 401(k) plan, or a 403(b) plan, a distribution you receive is a QRD if the following requirements are met.

  • You were ordered or called to active duty after September 11, 2001.

  • You were ordered or called to active duty for a period of more than 179 days or for an indefinite period because you are a member of a reserve component (see Am I a Member of a Reserve Component, earlier, under Travel Expenses of Armed Forces Reservists).

  • The distribution is from an IRA or from amounts attributable to elective deferrals under a section 401(k) or 403(b) plan or a similar arrangement.

  • The distribution was made no earlier than the date of the order or call to active duty and no later than the close of the active duty period.

Can I repay amounts distributed from my IRA, my section 401(k) or 403(b) plan, or a similar arrangement?

You may be able to contribute (repay) to an IRA amounts equal to any QRD (defined earlier) you received. You can make these repayment contributions even if they would cause your total contributions to the IRA to be more than the general limit on contributions. You may make these repayment contributions to an IRA, even if you received the QRD from a section 401(k) or 403(b) plan or a similar arrangement.

Is there a limit to the amount I can repay?

Your qualified reservist repayments can’t be more than your QRD.

Is there a time limit for repaying?

You can make these repayment contributions up to and including the date that is 2 years after your active duty period ends.

Can I deduct qualified reservist repayments?

You can’t deduct qualified reservist repayments.

Will the repayment affect my IRA deduction?

The repayment of QRD doesn’t affect the amount you can deduct as an IRA contribution.

How do you report the repayment?

If you repay a QRD, include the amount of the repayment with nondeductible contributions on line 1 of Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs.

Tax Relief for Qualified Disaster Distributions and Repayments

Special rules provide for tax-favored distributions from and repayments to certain retirement plans (including IRAs) on account of economic losses due to disasters declared by the President. To report the qualified distributions and repayments, use Form 8915-F for disasters that occur after 2019. For more information, see the Instructions for Form 8915-F and Pub. 590-B.

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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