Lajes Field is an OCONUS Air Force installation in Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal. This guide covers Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA), MIHA, TRICARE region, and PCS resources.
Lajes Field is an Air Force installation in Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal.
Lajes Field is an overseas assignment, so housing is paid through Overseas Housing Allowance rather than BAH. OHA reimburses your actual rent up to a cap set for the location and paygrade, which means what you receive depends on the lease you sign — unused allowance is forfeited rather than kept. A move-in housing allowance covers one-time costs such as deposits and transformers.
Care here falls under the TRICARE Overseas region.
Lajes Field is overseas, so housing is paid through Overseas Housing Allowance rather than BAH. The difference that matters is that OHA is a reimbursement, not a flat rate: you are paid your actual rent and utilities up to a cap set for the location and your paygrade, and anything you do not spend is forfeited rather than kept. A separate move-in housing allowance covers one-time setup costs such as deposits, agent fees and transformers.
No. OHA, the utility allowance and MIHA are all non-taxable, so none of them appears as taxable wages on your W-2 and no federal or state income tax is withheld from them. What they do not do is behave like BAH: OHA reimburses your actual rent up to the ceiling, so an unspent dollar is forfeited rather than kept, and the untaxed amount is whatever you actually spend.
Lajes Field falls in the TRICARE Overseas region — the contractor there is International SOS Government Services, LLC. 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.
Most of it is reimbursed rather than paid. A PCS to Lajes Field 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.