Can You Write Off Military Uniforms on Taxes?

You cannot write off military uniforms on your federal taxes. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended the deduction that uniform costs used to fall under starting in 2018, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, made that suspension permanent.¹ The tax benefit for uniform costs now runs through a different channel: the clothing allowances the Department of Defense pays you are excluded from your taxable income, so you never owe tax on that money to begin with. A few states that didn’t follow the federal change may still allow the deduction on your state return.

Why the Federal Deduction Disappeared

Before 2018, unreimbursed uniform costs were deductible as miscellaneous itemized deductions on Schedule A, subject to a floor of 2% of your adjusted gross income. The TCJA suspended that entire category for tax years 2018 through 2025, and many service members expected it to return in 2026. It won’t. The current federal statute prohibits miscellaneous itemized deductions for any tax year beginning after December 31, 2017, with no expiration date.¹

Military uniforms still meet the IRS test for deductible work clothing. Regulations require you to wear them, and items like dress blues, combat fatigues, or flight suits aren’t clothing anyone would wear off duty. That part isn’t the problem. The problem is that the whole bucket those expenses lived in has been closed off, for every W-2 employee in the military, whether active duty, Reserve, or National Guard. IRS Publication 3 states this plainly: you can no longer claim any miscellaneous itemized deductions, including unreimbursed employee business expenses.²

What Active Duty Members Get Instead

Active duty members have the least to worry about from a tax standpoint, because the Department of Defense covers most uniform costs directly. Enlisted personnel receive initial clothing issues and ongoing cash clothing replacement allowances. Officers typically receive an initial clothing allowance upon commissioning and smaller maintenance allowances afterward. Federal law authorizes the Secretary of Defense to set the amount furnished or its cash equivalent.³

These allowances are excluded from your gross income. They don’t show up as taxable wages on your W-2, and no federal income tax, Social Security tax, or Medicare tax comes out of them.² For fiscal year 2026 (effective October 1, 2025), standard annual enlisted allowances range from roughly $590 to $850 depending on branch and gender, with Marines receiving the highest standard rate. A “basic” rate applies in your first years of service, and a higher “standard” rate kicks in afterward.

A $600 tax-free allowance puts the same amount in your pocket as a $600 deduction would have, assuming you’d have been in a position to claim one. If you buy a uniform item out of pocket and no reimbursement covers it, that remaining expense cannot be deducted on your federal return. The permanent suspension closes that door.

Reserve and National Guard Members

A persistent misconception holds that Reservists and Guard members can still deduct uniform costs through an above-the-line adjustment. That confusion comes from mixing up two separate provisions: the Reservist travel expense deduction, which still exists, and the uniform deduction, which doesn’t.

The above-the-line deduction for Reserve component members covers unreimbursed travel expenses when you perform services more than 100 miles from your tax home and stay overnight.⁴ It covers transportation, lodging, and meals at federal per diem rates. It does not cover the cost of buying or maintaining your uniform. Uniform expenses for Reservists fall into the same eliminated miscellaneous itemized deduction category as everyone else’s, and IRS Publication 3 confirms the broader unreimbursed employee expense deduction is gone.²

If you do qualify for the travel deduction, you calculate the total on Form 2106⁵ and carry it to Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 12.⁶ You benefit whether or not you itemize, which matters because the 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly, and most service members take the standard deduction.

Check Your State Return

Federal law controls what you can deduct federally, but your state return follows its own rules. Some states never conformed to the TCJA’s elimination of miscellaneous itemized deductions and still allow unreimbursed employee business expenses, including military uniform costs, on the state return. The rules vary widely, and not every state with an income tax offers this option. If you itemize on your state return, check whether your state decoupled from the federal suspension before writing uniform costs off as a total loss.

Records Worth Keeping

Even with the federal deduction gone, keeping records of uniform expenses takes little effort and pays off in a few situations. If you file in a state that still allows the deduction, you’ll need the documentation. If you’re a Reservist claiming travel expenses, clean records prevent headaches if the IRS questions your return. And your Leave and Earnings Statement is the only way to show what portion of your uniform spending was actually unreimbursed.

For any deductible military expense, keep:

Itemized purchase receipts showing the date, item, and amount paid for any uniform, insignia, or gear bought out of pocket
Receipts for dry cleaning, tailoring, and repairs
Your Leave and Earnings Statement showing clothing allowance amounts received, so you can calculate the true unreimbursed portion
Dates, duty locations, mileage logs, and lodging receipts for Reserve duty more than 100 miles from home

Receipts don’t have to be paper. Digital copies and bank or credit card statements showing the charge are generally sufficient, as long as you can identify the specific expense if asked.⁷

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 67 – 2-Percent Floor on Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 3 – Armed Forces Tax Guide
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 37 USC 418 – Clothing Allowance: Enlisted Members
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 62 – Adjusted Gross Income Defined
5
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Form 2106 – Employee Business Expenses
6
Internal Revenue Service. Schedule 1 (Form 1040) – Additional Income and Adjustments to Income
7
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Treatment of Uniforms Issued to Government Employees