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June 4, 2019
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I am in college and active duty military. I am the sole income of my family with 2 children and a wife. Will I file anything differently?

  • June 4, 2019
  • 1 reply
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Best answer by Anita01

Since we don't know how you filed 2016, we can't really tell if you'll file anything differently.  You'll file jointly with your spouse, and enter the two children under the dependent section in Personal Info.  If your college expenses are all paid by the VA bill, you wouldn't need to enter those.  If you paid anything out of pocket, you would enter the 1099-T received from the school under Education expenses in Deductions and Credits.

If you had any nontaxable combat pay from your military W-2, you'll be asked if you want to add that back to your income to calculate the earned Income Credit and that can sometimes increase your EIC.  After entering your W-2, make sure you check that it's for active duty military pay on the followup screens.  If you have any more specific questions please return and post them in comments.

1 reply

Anita01Answer
June 4, 2019

Since we don't know how you filed 2016, we can't really tell if you'll file anything differently.  You'll file jointly with your spouse, and enter the two children under the dependent section in Personal Info.  If your college expenses are all paid by the VA bill, you wouldn't need to enter those.  If you paid anything out of pocket, you would enter the 1099-T received from the school under Education expenses in Deductions and Credits.

If you had any nontaxable combat pay from your military W-2, you'll be asked if you want to add that back to your income to calculate the earned Income Credit and that can sometimes increase your EIC.  After entering your W-2, make sure you check that it's for active duty military pay on the followup screens.  If you have any more specific questions please return and post them in comments.