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Moving Expenses: Military Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Moving Expenses” 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.

Moving Expenses

You may be able to exclude from income the value of government-provided services and reimbursement. If you weren't reimbursed, you may be able to deduct expenses you incurred when you moved. We discuss both below.

To deduct moving expenses, you must be a member of the Armed Forces on active duty and your move must be due to a military order and the result of a permanent change of station (defined next).

What constitutes a permanent change of station?

A permanent change of station includes:

  • A move from your home to your first post of active duty,

  • A move from one permanent post of duty to another, and

  • A move from your last post of duty to your home or to a nearer point in the United States. The move must occur within 1 year of ending your active duty or within the period allowed under the Joint Travel Regulations.

Are there additional considerations when a spouse or dependent moves?

If you are the spouse or dependent of a member of the Armed Forces who deserts, is imprisoned, or dies while on active duty, a permanent change of station for you includes a move to:

  • The member's place of enlistment or induction;

  • Your, or the member's, home of record; or

  • A nearer point in the United States.

If the military moves you to or from a different location than the member, the moves are treated as a single move to your new main job location.

Are Reimbursements, or the Value of Services Provided by the Government When I Move, Included in My Income?

Don't include in your income the value of moving and storage services provided by the government because of a permanent change of station. Similarly, don't include in income amounts received as a dislocation allowance, temporary lodging expense, temporary lodging allowance, or move-in housing allowance.

Generally, if the total reimbursements or allowances that you receive from the government because of the move are more than your actual moving expenses, the excess is included in your wages on Form W-2. However, if any reimbursements or allowances (other than dislocation allowances, temporary lodging expenses, temporary lodging allowances, or move-in housing allowances) exceed the cost of moving and the excess isn't included in your wages on Form W-2, the excess must still be included in gross income on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 1h.

If you must relocate and your spouse and dependents move to or from a different location, don't include in income reimbursements, allowances, or the value of moving and storage services provided by the government to move you and your spouse and dependents to and from the separate locations.

Which Moving Expenses Are Deductible and Which Aren't

How much of my moving expenses can I deduct?

If you move because of a permanent change of station, you can deduct the reasonable unreimbursed expenses of moving you and members of your household. See How To Report Moving Expenses, later, for how to report this deduction.

A member of your household is anyone who has both your former home and your new home as their main home. It doesn't include a tenant or employee unless you can claim that person as a dependent on your tax return.

Which moving expenses can I deduct?

You can deduct expenses (if not reimbursed or furnished in kind) for:

  • Moving household goods and personal effects, and

  • Travel.

Moving household goods and personal effects.

You can deduct the expenses of moving your household goods and personal effects, including expenses for hauling a trailer, packing, crating, in-transit storage, and insurance. You can't deduct expenses for moving furniture or other goods you bought on the way from your old home to your new home.

Storing and insuring household goods and personal effects.

You can include only the cost of storing and insuring your household goods and personal effects within any period of 30 consecutive days after the day these goods and effects are moved from your former home and before they are delivered to your new home.

Travel.

You can deduct the expenses of traveling (including lodging within certain limitations, but not meals) from your old home to your new home, including car expenses and airfare. You can deduct as car expenses either:

  • Your actual out-of-pocket expenses such as gas and oil, or

  • The standard mileage rate of 21 cents a mile.

You can add parking fees and tolls to the amount claimed under either method. You can't deduct any expenses for meals. You can't deduct the cost of unnecessary side trips or lavish and extravagant lodging.

Moving services and allowances provided by the government.

Don’t deduct any expenses for moving services that were provided by the government. Also, don’t deduct any expenses that were reimbursed by an allowance you didn’t include in income.

Foreign Moves

A foreign move is a move from the United States or its territories to a foreign country or from one foreign country to another foreign country. A move from a foreign country to the United States or its territories isn't a foreign move. For purposes of determining whether a move is a foreign move, a U.S. military base is not a territory of the United States and moving to a U.S. military base located in a foreign country is a foreign move.

For a foreign move, the deductible moving expenses described earlier are expanded to include the reasonable expenses of the following.

  • Moving your household goods and personal effects to and from storage.

  • Storing these items for part or all of the time the new job location remains your main job location. The new job location must be outside the United States.

How To Report Moving Expenses

Figure moving expense deductions on Form 3903. The Form 3903 instructions provide information on how to figure your deduction for qualified expenses that exceed your reimbursements and allowances (including dislocation allowances, temporary lodging expenses, temporary lodging allowances, or move-in housing allowances that are excluded from gross income).

If you qualify to deduct expenses for more than one move, use a separate Form 3903 for each move.

Carry the moving expense deduction from Form(s) 3903, line 5, to Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 14. For more information, see Form 3903 and its instructions.

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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