Military Tax Help

"What do you do in the infantry, you march, you march, you march. What do you do in the air force, you fly, you fly, you fly. What do you do in the Navy, you sail, you sail, you sail."

Or at least that's how legendary song writer Irving Berlin put it. What think Berlin failed to mention, however, was that no matter what else you do in the Armed Forces, you sile a tax return every year. No exemption is made for military personnel regardless of whether they are stationed in a combat zone, servicing on a submarine deep down under the polar ice cap, or assigned to spit shining officers' boots at the Pentagon.

Tax returns must be filled out, signed, sealed and delivered to the IRS just as if the soldiers, sailors, fliers and Coast Guard persons were plain vanilla civilians working in the unemployment line. (Note: And, yes, under recent changes to the tax codes you have to file if you are drawing unemployment.)

Quite naturally, a certain percentage of sailors, marines, bomber pilots, fighter pilots, green berets, military police and Guantanamo Bay interrogators are just as helpless at filing out a tax form as their civilian counterparts. Something about two plus two equaling four out which the sharks in Congress want $3.50 confounds these dogfaces, GI Joes, GI Janes, etc. etc. etc. just like it does you and me.

To help military personnel and their spouses get done with their taxes and back to their real jobs -- defending the United States for the military personnel, raising the next generation of warriors for the spouses -- the government has established the

the Armed Forces Tax Council (AFTC) to provide currently serving service men and women with tax filing assistance free of charge.

The AFTC serves as the main conduit for contact between the IRS, military personnel and their families. They supervise the operation of the programs for military tax assistance. By selecting the direct deposit most that electronically file their tax returns receive their refunds in as little as one week.

If you're in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard and need help with your taxes, you can find information about hooking up with the AFTC on irs.gov.