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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992                   TAG: 9202020002
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

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SOME MILITARY PERSONNEL GET BREAK

Military personnel who served during the Persian Gulf War may avoid tax on part of their pay.

Enlisted personnel and warrant officers are allowed to exclude all pay earned in the gulf combat zone after Jan. 16, 1991. Officers may exclude $500 a month.

The exclusion applies for a full month if even just one day of the month was spent in the combat zone.

The exclusion is effective for up to two years' time for personnel in hospitals outside the zone recuperating from combat wounds or illness.

The law permits the exclusion for time spent outside a combat zone if such service was supporting operations in the zone or if that service qualifies for imminent-danger pay.

Tax-excludable combat pay should not be included in the wages shown in Box 10 of the W-2 form.

The combat-pay exclusion is not available for the period between Aug. 2, 1990, when the deployment of large numbers of U.S. troops to the gulf began, and Jan. 17, when the war began.

- Associated Press

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