PCS Move Money: Allowances and Military Entitlements

PCS move allowances are not a single check. They’re a stack of separate payments — Dislocation Allowance, mileage, per diem, temporary lodging, household goods shipment or a self-move payout, and, since 2025, limited pet transportation — and your total depends on your pay grade, whether you have dependents, how far you’re moving, and whether the destination is inside or outside the continental United States. An E-5 with dependents collects $3,548.02 in Dislocation Allowance alone before any of the other entitlements are added. Most service members walk away with several thousand dollars across the full bundle, and the figure climbs quickly with rank, distance, and family size.

Dislocation Allowance

DLA is the flat, one-time payment meant to offset the miscellaneous costs of setting up a new household: deposits, utility hookups, and the small expenses that pile up during any move. You receive it once per fiscal year, with limited exceptions, and it is not taxable, so the full amount lands in your account without withholding.¹

Rates are set by pay grade and dependent status. Selected 2026 figures:

E-1 without dependents: $1,870.58; with dependents: $3,548.02
E-5 without dependents: $2,389.42; with dependents: $3,548.02
E-9 without dependents: $3,147.54; with dependents: $4,149.51
O-3 without dependents: $3,404.11; with dependents: $4,041.88
O-6 and above without dependents: $4,758.96 to $5,187.33; with dependents: $5,749.63 to $6,385.58

If you’re required to vacate government quarters, you may receive a partial DLA of $1,002.71 instead of the full rate.¹

Mileage and Per Diem for the Drive

The Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation (MALT) reimburses you for driving a privately owned vehicle to your new duty station. The 2026 rate is $0.205 per mile based on the official distance between authorized locations. That single rate covers everyone in the vehicle, so no extra payment per passenger. If your orders authorize a second vehicle, that second car gets its own MALT payment at the same per-mile rate.³

A 1,000-mile move produces roughly $205 per authorized vehicle. A 2,500-mile cross-country move generates about $512 per vehicle. The rate isn’t designed to cover the actual cost of operating your car; it’s flat reimbursement tied to distance.

On top of mileage, you receive per diem for each authorized travel day to cover meals and incidentals. Dependents traveling with you add to the total: each dependent age 12 or older receives 75% of your per diem rate, and each dependent under 12 receives 50%.⁴

Temporary Lodging: TLE and TLA

Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE) covers hotel and meal costs when you’re between permanent housing on a CONUS move — the days spent in a hotel near your old base while the movers pack, or in temporary quarters near your new base while you house-hunt. TLE is capped at $290 per day, and for CONUS-to-CONUS moves you can receive up to 21 days, split however you choose between the old and new duty stations.⁵

The actual daily reimbursement is a percentage of the local per diem rate, scaled to family size:

Service member alone, or one dependent alone: 65%
Service member and one dependent together, or two dependents: 100%
Each additional dependent age 12 or older: add 35%
Each additional dependent under 12: add 25%

⁵

In areas with documented housing shortages, disaster declarations, or personnel surges, an installation commander can extend TLE in 10-day increments up to 60 total days. Extensions require registering with the designated official on arrival and providing written updates on your housing search every 10 days.⁶

For OCONUS destinations, Temporary Lodging Allowance (TLA) replaces TLE. It works on the same family-size percentages, applied to the OCONUS locality’s per diem rate, and is reviewed and extended in 10-day increments by an approving official monitoring your housing search.⁷

Household Goods Shipment

The government ships your household goods to the new duty station at no cost to you, up to a weight limit set by pay grade and dependent status. Go over that limit and you pay the overage yourself. Weigh your shipment and know your ceiling before it leaves.

Selected weight allowances:

E-1 to E-3 without dependents: 5,000 lbs; with dependents: 8,000 lbs
E-5 without dependents: 7,000 lbs; with dependents: 9,000 lbs
E-7 without dependents: 11,000 lbs; with dependents: 13,000 lbs
O-4/W-4 without dependents: 14,000 lbs; with dependents: 17,000 lbs
O-6 to O-10: 18,000 lbs regardless of dependent status

OCONUS locations sometimes cut those allowances administratively. Assignments in Japan or South Korea, for example, may limit you to 50% or 75% of the full allowance depending on rank and whether dependents accompany you. Confirm the location-specific limit with your Transportation Management Office before the packers arrive.

Personally Procured Moves

Instead of a government-arranged shipment, you can run the move yourself under a Personally Procured Move (PPM). You rent a truck, hire your own movers, or ship items yourself, and you’re paid 100% of what the government would have spent under the Global Household Goods Contract.⁸

If your actual moving costs come in below the government estimate, you keep the difference. The DoD periodically raises the rate to encourage PPMs; from May 15 through September 30, 2025, reimbursement was temporarily set at 130% of the government’s cost. Check the Joint Travel Regulations changes page before deciding between a government move and a PPM, especially around peak season.⁹

You can request up to 60% of the estimated PPM payment as an advance to cover truck rentals, fuel, and packing supplies.⁸ At settlement, you’ll need certified weight tickets showing the loaded and empty weight of your vehicle or rental truck. The difference between actual costs and the government’s estimated cost is treated as incentive pay, which is taxed.

Pet Transportation

As of February 2025, the DoD reimburses transportation for one cat or dog per PCS move. The maximum is $550 for a CONUS move and $2,000 for OCONUS. You must follow all pet import and export regulations. For OCONUS moves, government transportation must be used if available; if it isn’t, a note from your Transportation Management Office confirming that is required before you can claim reimbursement.¹⁰

What Gets Taxed

Most PCS money is tax-free. DLA, TLE, TLA, MALT, per diem, and government-paid household goods shipments are not taxable income.¹¹

PPM incentive pay is the exception. If your PPM reimbursement exceeds your actual moving costs, the difference is taxable and withheld at a flat 22%. You’ll receive a W-2 for the incentive amount in the tax year you were paid.¹²

You can shrink the taxable portion by claiming operating expenses: truck and trailer rental, fuel, packing materials, boxes, hired labor, portable storage containers, weight ticket fees, and sales tax on those items. What doesn’t count: meals, lodging, hitch fees, rope, storage, and routine vehicle maintenance. Save every receipt and complete an Operating Expense worksheet with your PPM claim.¹²

Active-duty members also keep the federal deduction for unreimbursed moving expenses on IRS Form 3903, covering transportation and storage of household goods plus travel and lodging from the old home to the new one (not meals). Civilians lost this deduction after the 2017 tax law changes; military members with PCS orders remain exempt from that suspension.¹³

Filing the Claim

PCS claims are filed on the DD Form 1351-2 travel voucher, submitted through the Defense Travel System or directly to your local finance office, with a copy of your official orders attached.¹⁴ Advances are available on DLA and on up to 60% of an estimated PPM payment; anything advanced is subtracted at final settlement.

For a PPM claim, add your certified weight tickets and operating expense documentation. Keep every lodging receipt, fuel receipt, and rental agreement. The most common reason PCS claims stall or get reduced is missing paperwork, so file the voucher promptly after the move ends.

1
Defense Travel Management Office. Dislocation Allowance
2
Department of Defense. CY2026 Dislocation Allowance (DLA) Rates
3
Defense Travel Management Office. Mileage Rates
4
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Army PCS Dependents Travel Pay
5
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE)
6
U.S. Department of Defense. Joint Travel Regulations
7
Defense Travel Management Office. Temporary Lodging Allowance Computation
8
Department of Defense. Temporarily Increase Personally Procured Move Reimbursement
9
Defense Travel Management Office. Joint Travel Regulations Changes
10
Defense Travel Management Office. New Reimbursement Available for Pet Transportation Costs
11
Military Compensation. Tax Exempt Allowances
12
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Personally Procured Moves (PPM)
13
Internal Revenue Service. Form 3903 – Moving Expenses
14
Washington Headquarters Services. DD Form 1351-2 – Travel Voucher or Subvoucher