Overview
- Officials said the December 2025 payments were supplemental Basic Allowance for Housing and therefore excluded from taxable income.
- Roughly 1.45 million service members in pay grades O-6 and below, including eligible reservists, received the $1,776 payment.
- The funds were drawn from a $2.9 billion congressional appropriation enacted in July 2025 to bolster housing allowances.
- The Pentagon issued the one-time payment as an out-of-cycle BAH supplement, and recipients should not report it as income.
- President Trump had announced the bonus in December as a commemorative payment tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary.