This guide has 2026 BAH for every paygrade at Fort Richardson, how far it goes against local rents, the TRICARE region, how Alaska taxes military pay, and the PCS tools for a move here.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
Fort Richardson is an Army installation in Anchorage, Alaska.
Housing here is priced in the Anchorage military housing area. 2026 BAH for an E-5 with dependents is $2,874 a month, against HUD's FY2027 fair market rent of $2,117 for a three-bedroom — about $757 a month clear of the rent. BAH is paid on top of base pay and is not taxed, and the rate is the same whether you rent or buy.
No Alaska state income tax. Care here falls under the TRICARE West region. Families living off post are served by Anchorage School District.
It is a second allowance, not part of the first. BAH covers housing at Fort Richardson. OCONUS COLA is the separate, non-taxable allowance that offsets what everything else costs — groceries, fuel, services — and it explicitly excludes housing, so it neither raises nor reduces the housing figures this guide states. It exists because the prices paid around Fort Richardson are measured against what the same goods cost in the continental United States, and the gap is what the allowance closes.
What sets the amount. Three tables in sequence: your annual compensation, which follows pay grade and years of service; the spendable-income figure where that compensation meets your number of command-sponsored dependents; and the COLA index published for this duty station. Subtract 100 from the index, treat the remainder as a percentage, and apply it to spendable income — that is the annual allowance, divided by 360 to give the daily rate that reaches your LES.
An index of 100 pays nothing. Because the calculation subtracts 100 before it multiplies, a location priced level with the continental United States produces no allowance at all. Overseas orders are not by themselves a COLA entitlement, and a location that paid it last year can stop.
It moves while you are there. The index is rebuilt from two price surveys, and the allowance is re-adjusted for currency movement as often as twice a month — so this is not a rate you check once before you fly. A dependent who is with you but is not command-sponsored does not move you to the with-dependent rate either, which is the difference most often noticed after the fact.
Alaska. Alaska has no state income tax — military pay is never taxed here regardless of duty station.
SCRA. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act your military pay is taxed by the state you are domiciled in, not by the one your duty station sits in. Being assigned to Fort Richardson does not by itself change which state may tax you, and it does not create a filing obligation where you are stationed.
TRICARE West. Care at Fort Richardson falls under the TRICARE West region, administered by TriWest Healthcare Alliance — enrollment and claims run through 888-TRIWEST (874-9378).
| Pay grade | With dependents | Without dependents |
|---|---|---|
| E-1 | $2,277 | $1,707 |
| E-2 | $2,277 | $1,707 |
| E-3 | $2,277 | $1,707 |
| E-4 | $2,277 | $1,707 |
| E-5 | $2,874 | $2,157 |
| E-6 | $2,892 | $2,169 |
| E-7 | $3,045 | $2,283 |
| E-8 | $3,240 | $2,430 |
| E-9 | $3,486 | $2,616 |
| W-1 | $2,895 | $2,172 |
| W-2 | $3,123 | $2,385 |
| W-3 | $3,369 | $2,619 |
| W-4 | $3,528 | $2,901 |
| W-5 | $3,723 | $3,087 |
| O-1 | $2,886 | $2,166 |
| O-1E (Prior Enlisted) | $3,078 | $2,310 |
| O-2 | $2,889 | $2,286 |
| O-2E (Prior Enlisted) | $3,333 | $2,523 |
| O-3 | $3,360 | $2,643 |
| O-3E (Prior Enlisted) | $3,558 | $2,853 |
| O-4 | $3,789 | $3,051 |
| O-5 | $4,095 | $3,162 |
| O-6 | $4,131 | $3,348 |
| O-7+ | $4,161 | $3,405 |
Fort Richardson draws its rates from the Anchorage military housing area. In 2026 an E-5 with dependents receives $2,874 a month and an E-5 without dependents $2,157. An E-7 with dependents receives $3,045. 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 covers a three-bedroom at the local benchmark with $757 a month left over. The benchmark is HUD's FY2027 fair market rent of $2,117 — 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.
Anchorage School District serves families living off post at Fort Richardson. 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 Richardson falls in the TRICARE West region — the contractor there is TriWest Healthcare Alliance. Your region decides who pays your claims 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.
Alaska has no state income tax — military pay is never taxed here regardless of duty station. 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 Richardson 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.