Active duty pay earned in any month you served in a combat zone.
- Imminent danger/hostile fire pay.
- A reenlistment bonus if the voluntary extension or reenlistment occurs in a month you served in a combat zone.
- Pay for accrued leave earned in any month you served in a combat zone. The Department of Defense must determine that the unused leave was earned during that period.
- Pay received for duties as a member of the Armed Forces in clubs, messes, post and station theaters, and other nonappropriated fund activities. The pay must be earned in a month you served in a combat zone.
- Awards for suggestions, inventions, or scientific achievements you are entitled to because of a submission you made in a month you served in a comat zone.
- Student loan repayments. If the entire year of service required to earn the repayment was performed in a combat zone, the entire payment made because of that year of service is excluded. If only part of that year of service was performed in a combat zone, only part of the repayment qualifies for exclusion.
Partial (month) service. If you serve in a combat zone for any part of one or more days during a particular month, you are entitled to an exclusion for that entire month.
Combat Zone
A combat zone is any area the President of the United States designates by Executive Order as an area in which the U.S. Armed Forces are engaging or have engaged in combat. An area usually becomes a combat zone and ceases to be a combat zone on the dates the President designates by Executive Order.
Afghanistan area. By Executive Order No. 13239, Afghanistan (and airspace above) was designated as a combat zone beginning September 19, 2001.
The Kosovo area. By Executive Order No. 13119 and Public Law 106–21, the following locations (including air space above) were designated as a combat zone and a qualified hazardous duty area beginning March 24, 1999.
- Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/ Montenegro).
- Albania.
- The Adriatic Sea.
- The Ionian Sea—north of the 39th parallel.
- The Persian Gulf,
- The Red Sea,
- The Gulf of Oman,
- The part of the Arabian Sea that is north of 10 degrees north latitude and west of 68 degrees east longitude,
- The Gulf of Aden, and
- The total land areas of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- Croatia, and
- Macedonia.
