Free Tax Help for Veterans: MilTax, VITA, and IRS Free File

Veterans have three main options for free tax help, and which one fits depends on your income and how recently you left service. The Department of Defense’s MilTax covers active duty, Guard and Reserve, eligible family members, and veterans within 365 days of separation or retirement.¹ The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) prepares returns in person for people earning roughly $69,000 or less, and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) does the same for taxpayers 60 and older. IRS Free File offers free guided software to anyone with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less.²

MilTax for Recent Separations and Current Service Members

If you separated or retired within the last year, MilTax is usually the strongest choice. The Department of Defense funds it through Military OneSource, and it includes free tax software plus one-on-one consultations with tax professionals who work on military returns year-round.¹ The software handles a federal return plus up to three state returns at no cost, which matters if you moved between states during the year.²

Eligibility runs to active duty, National Guard and Reserve, eligible family members, and veterans within 365 days of their separation or retirement date.¹ The consultants deal daily with things a general preparer sees only occasionally: combat zone exclusions, housing allowance treatment, and the moving deduction that still applies to military members even though civilians lost it. There’s no income cap.

VITA and TCE for Lower-Income Returns

VITA is open to anyone who generally earns $69,000 or less per year, and also to people with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency. TCE serves taxpayers 60 and older and specializes in pensions and retirement, which is useful if you’re drawing military retirement pay.³ Both programs use IRS-certified volunteers working out of libraries, community centers, nonprofits, and military installations. Sites near bases often train their volunteers on combat pay, VA disability exclusions, and veteran-specific credits.

Every VITA and TCE return goes through a second-volunteer quality review before it’s filed. The reviewer compares the return against your intake form and supporting documents, but is allowed to rely on the information you provided in good faith.⁴ Bring complete paperwork or the review can only do so much.

What VITA and TCE Cannot Prepare

These programs have hard scope limits, and volunteers are trained to turn away returns that fall outside them rather than attempt them. That’s worth knowing before you book an appointment. VITA and TCE will not prepare returns that involve:

Self-employment with business expenses over $50,000, inventory, employees, home office deductions, or a net loss⁵
Rental property income, or sales of assets other than stocks, mutual funds, or a personal residence⁶
Cryptocurrency or other digital asset transactions during the year⁶
Options, futures, or commodities, even if you didn’t sell during the year⁶

If you started a small business after separating, bought a rental property with a VA loan, or trade crypto, expect VITA to send you elsewhere.

IRS Free File Software

If you earn too much for VITA and separated more than a year ago, IRS Free File is the fallback. The program partners with commercial tax software companies to provide free guided preparation to taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less.² Each partner sets its own eligibility rules based on factors like age, state, and military status, so you may need to try more than one to find a match.

Free File handles more complex returns than VITA because you’re driving full commercial software. The trade-off is that no one reviews the return for you. IRS Direct File, which the IRS ran as a pilot in earlier years, is not available for the 2026 filing season.

Veteran-Specific Items to Raise With Your Preparer

Whichever program you use, these are the areas where veterans most often lose money by not asking.

VA Disability Compensation Is Not Taxable

Disability payments from the VA are excluded from gross income. That covers disability compensation, VA pension, grants for wheelchair-accessible home modifications, and grants for vehicles adapted for loss of sight or limbs.⁷ The exclusion sits in a longstanding provision covering amounts received as a pension or similar allowance for injuries or sickness resulting from active military service.⁸ If software or a preparer tries to include VA disability as taxable income, stop and correct it.

Combat Pay Exclusion

Enlisted members serving in a combat zone can exclude all compensation earned during those months from gross income. Commissioned officers get a partial exclusion capped at the highest enlisted pay amount, which was $10,983 per month for 2025.⁹ The exclusion also covers months spent hospitalized for wounds or illness from combat zone service, up to two years after combat operations end in that zone.¹⁰

The Combat Pay EITC Election

This one gets missed even by some preparers. You can elect to include your nontaxable combat pay as earned income when calculating the Earned Income Tax Credit.¹¹ It sounds backward, but the EITC is based on earned income, and adding combat pay back in can raise the credit for lower-income households. It doesn’t always help, so a good preparer runs it both ways. Ask if they don’t bring it up.

Refunds on Past Returns

Veterans who receive a retroactive disability rating from the VA, or who get approved for combat-related special compensation after previously paying tax on that income, can file Form 1040-X to amend a past return and claim a refund.⁷ The general deadline is three years from the date you filed the original return, or two years from the date you paid the tax, whichever comes later.¹²

A separate refund applies to veterans who received a lump-sum disability severance payment when separating and had tax withheld from it. The Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016 lets eligible veterans who received these payments between January 1991 and January 2017 claim a refund, either by calculating the exact overpayment or by using a standard amount that ranges from $1,750 to $3,200 depending on the tax year of the payment.¹³ Veterans who never received a Department of Defense notice about this can still file by pulling documentation from the National Archives or the VA.

What to Bring to Your Appointment

VITA and MilTax sessions move faster when you arrive organized. Have these ready:

Social Security cards or ITINs for you, your spouse, and any dependents
W-2s from civilian employers, 1099-R forms for military retirement pay, 1099-INT forms for bank interest, and any other income statements
Your VA disability rating letter and any correspondence about retroactive awards or rating changes
Records of deductible expenses, charitable contributions, and education costs
A copy of last year’s tax return

For in-person VITA and TCE sites, you’ll also complete IRS Form 13614-C, the Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet, before the session.¹⁴ Most sites let you download it ahead of time, and filling it out at home gives you space to check the details.

One document you can skip for your federal return: the IRS 1095-B for VA health coverage. The VA still makes these available for the past three years, but federal law no longer requires filing it with your federal return.¹⁵ Some states still require proof of coverage, so check if you’re filing a state return.

Finding a Site

The IRS has an online locator for VITA and TCE sites where you can search by ZIP code.¹⁶ Military OneSource maintains a separate locator for VITA sites on military installations, which tend to have preparers with more military-specific experience.¹⁷ MilTax software and consultations are accessed through Military OneSource directly.¹

Most VITA and TCE sites require appointments, particularly early in filing season. Many also offer virtual preparation where you upload documents through a secure portal and work with a preparer remotely.

You Still Sign the Return

Free help is real help, but the signature at the bottom is still yours, and so is the legal responsibility for everything above it. VITA volunteers are IRS-certified and act in good faith, but they aren’t liable for errors the way a paid preparer would be. If a volunteer misses a deduction or miscategorizes income, you’re the one dealing with the IRS. Read the completed return before signing, ask about anything you don’t recognize, and keep copies of every document you handed over.

1
Military OneSource. MilTax: Free Tax Filing Software and Support
2
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Tax Filing Season Opens With Several Free Filing Options Available
3
Internal Revenue Service. Free Tax Return Preparation for Qualifying Taxpayers
4
Internal Revenue Service. VITA/TCE Quality Review Process
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Internal Revenue Service. Out of Scope Situations for VITA/TCE
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Internal Revenue Service. Out of Scope Situations for VITA/TCE
7
Internal Revenue Service. Veterans Tax Information and Services
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
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Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Publication 3 – Armed Forces Tax Guide
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 112 – Certain Combat Zone Compensation of Members of the Armed Forces
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 32 – Earned Income
12
Internal Revenue Service. File an Amended Return
13
Internal Revenue Service. Time Is Running Out for Some Combat-Injured Veterans to Claim Tax Refunds of Up to $3,200
14
Internal Revenue Service. Form 13614-C – Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet
15
Veterans Affairs. Download Your IRS 1095-B Tax Form
16
Internal Revenue Service. VITA/TCE Site Locator
17
Military OneSource. Installation Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Locator