No doubt that Dawn Marie Moore-Ahmed can sing the George M. Cohan 1917 hit, because she was over there in Iraq, and getting paid by the US Army for her services, but Dawn Marie’s pay is not excludable from US income tax. And the correctly-spelled Special Trial Judge, STJ Lewis (Way to Spell It, Judge) R. Carluzzo puts Dawn Marie wise in the eponymous off-the-bencher at Docket No. 10438-13S, filed 3/28/14.

Dawn Marie started as a high school dropout, but finished up eventually and even took some college courses. After eleven years’ service with the active-duty Army, she was released due to injuries sustained.

Dawn Marie got hired as what we used to call, and for all I know may still call, a DAC (Department of the Army civilian). And for the years at issue, Dawn Marie was sent to Iraq and spent time there as a DAC.

Dawn Marie’s paid preparer (after consulting Dawn Marie) excluded a part of her income, claiming Section 911 treatment and also that she was in a combat zone.

As to Section 911, even though Iraq might have been Dawn Marie’s tax home, the money she earned wasn’t foreign earned income “because the wages were ‘paid by the United States or an agency thereof to an employee of the United States or an agency thereof.’  Sec. 911(b)(1) and (2).”  Order, at p. 7.

If Uncle Sam paid you, whatever he paid you is not foreign earned income, wherever you were when he paid you.

Besides, being paid while in a combat zone is only part of the Section 112 exclusion from income. “Section 112 provides that ‘gross income does not include compensation received for active service as a member below the grade of commissioned officer in the Armed forces of the United States’ for service during certain periods which such member ‘served in a combat zone.’ Sec. 112(a).” Order, at p. 8.

Dawn Marie wasn’t a member of the armed forces of the United States, so Section 112 doesn’t help her.

I’m sure Jim Daly, whose Iraq and Afghanistan experiences I blogged in my blogpost “At Home Abroad”, 6/6/13, is pleased that Executive Order 12744 designated Iraq as a combat zone, even though the Secretary of the Treasury never got around to doing so.

But civilian Dawn Marie is out of luck. However, her educational background spares her the accuracy penalty.