What this line means
Line 3 minus line 4 — the amount of your moving costs that exceeded what the military reimbursed. This is your deductible moving expense. It flows to Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 14 as an above-the-line adjustment to income. If line 4 equals or exceeds line 3, enter zero here and report the excess reimbursement as income on Form 1040, line 1h.
Does this apply to you?
- You are an active-duty service member whose out-of-pocket PCS moving costs exceeded your tax-exempt military reimbursements
- You did a personally procured move (PPM/DITY) and spent more than the military paid you
- You had qualifying moving expenses that the military did not reimburse at all
- You moved from your last duty station to your home after separating from active duty and paid your own way
Easy to overlook
This is an above-the-line deduction — you do not need to itemize The moving expense deduction reduces your adjusted gross income directly. You claim it on Schedule 1, line 14 whether you take the standard deduction or itemize. Some service members skip this deduction because they assume it requires itemizing on Schedule A. It does not. Every qualifying filer benefits regardless of their deduction method. 1 IRS Form 3903 Instructions — Moving Expenses
No distance test or time test for military moves Civilian moving deductions (before they were suspended) required a 50-mile distance test and a 39-week time test. Neither applies to active-duty military PCS moves. If your PCS order sent you to a base 20 miles away, your move still qualifies. Service members sometimes hear about these tests from civilian tax advice and wrongly conclude their short-distance move does not count. 2 IRS Publication 3 — Armed Forces’ Tax Guide
Watch out for this
If line 4 is larger than line 3, do not just leave line 5 blank — enter zero. Then take the difference (line 4 minus line 3) and report it as taxable income on Form 1040, line 1h. This situation is common with PPM/DITY moves where the military’s incentive payment exceeds the actual cost of the move. Failing to report the excess means you understate your income, which the IRS can match against your W-2 Box 12 code P.
Footnotes
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IRS Form 3903 Instructions, Moving Expenses. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i3903 ↩
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IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces’ Tax Guide, Chapter 12. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3.pdf ↩