Military Leave Calculator

How the Military Leave Calculator Works

The Military Leave Calculator is a free, browser-based tool that projects your leave balance at separation and prices the two ways to cash it out: terminal leave or sell-back. Enter your current balance, ETS date and base pay, and it returns days at separation, sell-back value, and your last physical day of work in one second. Updated 2026-08-26.

Service members earn 2.5 days of leave per month (30 days per year). When separating from the military, you have three options for your accrued leave: take terminal leave (paid time off before your separation date), sell it back (receive a lump-sum payment for unused days, up to 60 days maximum), or a combination of both. This calculator helps you compare these options to make the best financial decision.

The calculator projects your total leave balance at separation by adding your current balance to the leave you will accrue between now and your ETS date. It then calculates the monetary value of selling back leave versus taking terminal leave, factoring in your base pay rate.

Terminal Leave vs Sell-Back

Terminal leave means you stop working but remain on active duty. You continue to receive full base pay, BAH, BAS, and health benefits (TRICARE) until your ETS date. This is often the better financial option because you receive your full compensation package, not just base pay. You can also start a civilian job while on terminal leave, effectively double-dipping on income.

Sell-back gives you a lump-sum payment for unused leave days, but the payment is calculated using only your base pay divided by 30 — it does not include BAH, BAS, or other allowances. Additionally, sell-back pay is taxable income and may push you into a higher tax bracket. The maximum you can sell back over your entire career is 60 days.

Tips for Maximizing Your Leave Value

• Take terminal leave whenever possible — you keep all benefits and can start a new job
• Plan ahead — start accruing leave months before separation to maximize your balance
• Combine both options — sell back some days and take terminal leave with the rest
• Factor in benefits — BAH alone can be worth more than the sell-back value per day
• Check your LES — verify your actual leave balance on your Leave and Earnings Statement

Important Considerations

Leave sell-back is limited to 60 days over your entire military career, regardless of how many days you have accumulated. If you have previously sold back leave during a reenlistment, that counts toward the 60-day lifetime cap. Leave beyond 60 days that is not used as terminal leave is simply lost — use it or lose it.

During terminal leave, you are still considered active duty. This means you must maintain military standards, can be recalled in an emergency, and continue to accrue leave (though any leave accrued during terminal leave is typically forfeited). Your DD-214 separation date remains your original ETS date, not your last day of physical work.

Selling Leave Days: What the Payment Looks Like After Tax

The number that decides sell-back versus terminal leave is take-home, not gross, and the two are taxed differently. Leave sell-back is paid as a supplemental-wage lump sum, so it is withheld at the IRS flat rate of 22% for supplemental wages up to $1 million — see IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), Supplemental Wages — and because sell-back is basic pay it also carries FICA at 7.65% (6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare). That is roughly 29.65% off the top before any state tax, so a $6,000 gross sell-back lands closer to $4,220 in the account. Terminal leave, by contrast, is ordinary pay withheld at your normal rate, and it keeps BAH, BAS and TRICARE running. The calculator now shows the estimated take-home next to the gross figure and compares the options on that basis. Withholding is not your final tax — over- or under-withholding is settled on your return. Updated 2026-09-09.

Use-or-Lose Leave and the 30 September Carryover Cap

Separation is not the only deadline that costs service members leave. Under 10 U.S.C. § 701, you may carry no more than 60 days of accrued leave across the end of the fiscal year on 30 September. Anything above 60 days on 1 October is forfeited outright — it is not paid out, and it does not roll into your sell-back entitlement. A member sitting on 71 days at the end of September loses 11 days, which at an E-6 base pay of roughly $4,200 a month is about $1,540 gone for nothing.

Two exceptions extend the cap. Special Leave Accrual (SLA) lets you hold up to 120 days when a deployment or operational assignment of 60+ consecutive days blocked you from taking leave; SLA days must then be used within the following fiscal years or they drop back to the 60-day ceiling. Career sell-back is capped separately at 60 days for an entire career under 37 U.S.C. § 501, and any leave you sold at a prior reenlistment already ate into that number.

Practical check each August: pull your current balance off your LES, add 2.5 days for September, and if the total tops 60, schedule the excess as ordinary leave before 30 September or convert it to terminal leave if your ETS is close. Run the numbers in the calculator above with your real ETS date before you request the leave — the sell-back figure is base pay only and usually loses to terminal leave once BAH and BAS are counted. Updated 2026-08-26.

Do You Keep BAH and BAS While on Terminal Leave?

Yes. Terminal leave is ordinary leave taken immediately before separation, and you remain on active duty for its whole length — so base pay, Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence all continue until your separation date, along with commissary access and medical coverage. That is the structural reason terminal leave is usually worth more than selling the same days.

Sold leave pays base pay only. No BAH, no BAS, and the payment is taxable as ordinary income with withholding applied, so the cash that lands is smaller than the day count suggests. The allowance side matters because BAH and BAS are not taxable pay — the IRS Armed Forces Tax Guide (Publication 3) lists which military pay and allowances are excluded from income. You can also start a civilian job while on terminal leave and draw both, which is the single biggest financial argument for taking the days rather than selling them. Updated 2026-09-16.