Santa Cruz Standard

Monterey, CA – United States Representatives Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) and Greg Steube (FL-17), members of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced bipartisan legislation to raise awareness of free tax services available for servicemembers through the MilTax program.  This legislation has been offered as an amendment to the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act.

Military servicemembers have unique tax situations, especially when they are deployed, and often need specialized assistance.  While many private tax companies offer discounts to military servicemembers, many do not know that the military already provides free professional tax services through Military OneSource.  There are currently no regulatory or legal requirements for the Department of Defense (DOD) to notify servicemembers of this program.

“While the federal government provides comprehensive, free tax support to servicemembers, there needs to be better advertising about the availability of these services,” said Rep. Panetta.  “I’m proud to author and introduce this bipartisan legislation to ensure that the Department of Defense is alerting servicemembers of this free benefit regularly during tax season.  Through greater awareness, we’ll better serve our military families facing unique and complex tax challenges while in the service of our nation.”

“Our servicemembers and their families often face scenarios when filing taxes that most civilians do not experience - such as deployments, reporting training pay, and filing in multiple states due to permanent changes of station,” said Rep. Steube.  “I’m glad to support this legislation to ensure the military community is notified of the free tax filing and personalized support services that MilTax offers.”

This bipartisan legislation would require DOD to notify servicemembers via mail, email, or in person about the availability of the free MilTax program and other free DOD tax services within the first two months of the calendar year.  The bill also mandates a report to Congress on program participation rates, to allow lawmakers to assess the success of this outreach.

MilTax includes tax preparation and e-filing software developed specifically for the military community, as well as personalized virtual support.  MilTax consultants are specially trained to help service members and their immediate families understand complex tax situations, such as tax forgiveness and refunds for surviving family members, extensions and deadlines, and much more.  This full suite of tax services addresses scenarios that civilians rarely encounter, such as deployments, combat, training pay, housing, and multistate filing.

Rep. Panetta previously wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and included report language in appropriations ensuring that the IRS does its part to notify taxpayers of the MilTax program, which has led to the addition of MilTax in official IRS communications.

Original source can be found here