EIC: I was deployed for 9 month to Iraq and my wife and son were stateside the entire year. Do I answer yes or no?

[dmstar8]

For EIC, the question asks if my wife and I had lived in the U.S. for more than 6 month in 2017. My wife and son where in the U.S. for the entire year. However, I was deployed to Iraq for 9 of the 12 months in 2017. Now it asks:

Did you or your wife live in the U.S. for more than six months in 2017?

Be sure to include any months you were temporarily out of the country (for example, if you're in the military and were stationed overseas).

and when clicking on the link it says:

What counts as being temporarily out of the country?

Temporary absences are those due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, or active military service.

So my question is because my wife and son were stateside, am I still able to answer we were stateside for more and six month? I have read in a few other questions to treat the deployment as if i was stateside. But why would it say to include any months I was temporarily out of the country, to include active military service?

[KrisD · Accepted solution]

YES your time serving is counted as living in the U.S. 

Perhaps the explanation in the software is confusing:

• Temporarily out of the country counts as living in the U.S.
• Serving in the military counts as a temporary absence
• Therefore serving overseas (deployed) is considered as living in the U.S. 

Thank you for your service. 

[jl26]

Does this include DoD employees that are working overseas?

[KrisD]

Yes, Department of Defense employees working overseas are considered as living in the USA during that time.

[SweetieJean]

@TurboTaxKrisD   Do you have a cite for this, specifically for DoD civilian employees?

[SweetieJean]

Per SuperUser Rainman12:
Civilians do Not have all the same tax benefits as Military because their service is considered Voluntary. IRS Pub 3 specifically grants EIC benefits for Military only; Civilian DoD positions are covered by IRS Pub 54 and 516; Neither of the latter mention EIC for overseas positions. However, since such jobs normally have the same APO/FPO addresses as military use, it's hard to say how/when/if IRS would be able to discriminate unless W-2 EIN is a qualifier ...