Fort Carson is an Army installation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This guide covers 2026 BAH rates for every paygrade, TRICARE region, state tax treatment, on-base amenities, and PCS planning tools.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
Home of the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at 5,800 ft in the Colorado Rockies, supporting mountain warfare and armored operations. Roughly 20,000 service members are assigned here.
Housing here is priced in the Colorado Springs military housing area. 2026 BAH for an E-5 with dependents is $2,358 a month, against HUD's FY2026 fair market rent of $2,413 for a three-bedroom — close enough to the rent that the two effectively cancel. BAH is paid on top of base pay and is not taxed, and the rate is the same whether you rent or buy.
CO relief depends on time stationed outside the US. Care here falls under the TRICARE West region. Families living off post are served by Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8.
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-1 | $2,160 | $1,689 |
| E-2 | $2,160 | $1,689 |
| E-3 | $2,160 | $1,689 |
| E-4 | $2,160 | $1,689 |
| E-5 | $2,358 | $1,860 |
| E-6 | $2,433 | $1,980 |
| E-7 | $2,487 | $2,166 |
| E-8 | $2,553 | $2,379 |
| E-9 | $2,646 | $2,388 |
| W-1 | $2,448 | $2,103 |
| W-2 | $2,514 | $2,376 |
| W-3 | $2,598 | $2,394 |
| W-4 | $2,664 | $2,436 |
| W-5 | $2,754 | $2,502 |
| O-1 | $2,376 | $1,959 |
| O-1E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,496 | $2,355 |
| O-2 | $2,430 | $2,295 |
| O-2E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,583 | $2,385 |
| O-3 | $2,595 | $2,397 |
| O-3E (Prior Enlisted) | $2,679 | $2,418 |
| O-4 | $2,778 | $2,484 |
| O-5 | $2,913 | $2,517 |
| O-6 | $2,934 | $2,574 |
| O-7+ | $2,955 | $2,616 |
Fort Carson draws its rates from the Colorado Springs military housing area. In 2026 an E-5 with dependents receives $2,358 a month and an E-5 without dependents $1,860. An E-7 with dependents receives $2,487. The rate depends on the housing area, your paygrade and whether you have dependents — not on your ZIP code, and not on whether you rent or buy.
For an E-5 with dependents, it lands within about $55 of a three-bedroom at the local benchmark, so there is very little margin. The benchmark is HUD's FY2026 fair market rent of $2,413 — a 40th-percentile gross rent, so it includes tenant-paid utilities and half the local market rents for more. Anything above that benchmark comes out of pocket, and anything below it you keep: BAH pays the same rate whatever your actual rent turns out to be.
No. BAH is a non-taxable allowance, so it does not appear as taxable wages on your W-2 and no federal or state income tax is withheld from it. That makes a dollar of BAH worth noticeably more than a dollar of base pay, which is why comparing a civilian salary against base pay alone understates military compensation.
Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 serves families living off post at Fort Carson. Enrollment normally needs the previous school's records, immunizations and proof of address, and the installation's School Liaison Officer can start that before you arrive.
Fort Carson falls in the TRICARE West region. The region determines which contractor administers your care and where referrals are authorized, so a PCS that crosses regions means transferring your enrollment — Prime enrollment does not follow you automatically, and letting it lapse drops you to TRICARE Select with its cost shares.
Colorado taxes a Colorado resident's active-duty pay. Members stationed outside the 50 states for at least 305 days of the tax year may elect to file as a nonresident, which removes the tax on military pay. Being stationed in a state does not by itself make you a resident of it: state income tax follows your state of legal residence, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protects that against an involuntary PCS.
Most of it is reimbursed rather than paid. A PCS to Fort Carson normally pays a dislocation allowance, a mileage allowance for driving your own vehicle, per diem for you and each dependent while you travel, and temporary lodging once you arrive. Choosing a personally procured move pays you the government's cost for the same shipment, so the profit — and the tax on it — depends on your weight and the distance. The PCS calculator estimates all of those for this destination.