<prompt> Human: There is an incentive program in the Army offering 300 per month for one year for extending an oversea tour or a lump sum payment of 3600. Is there a difference between these two options for tax purposes? My base pay is 2905.20 per month and after taxes and other additions to the pay I take home around 3057.49 per month. Edit: formatting, typo, number change. Edit 2: for those confused: This is all easy to find online fyi but heres my monthly breakdown: -Entitlements- Base pay: 2905.20 Basic allowance for subsistence: 246.24 Basic allowance for housing: 13.20 Hardship Duty Pay Location: 150.00 Cost of Living Allowance: 340.00 Total: 3654.64 -Deductions- Federal taxes: 342.90 Social security: 180.12 Medicare: 42.13 Life insurance: 29.00 Total: 594.15 Net takehome: 3057.49 Edit 3: formatting. Edit 4: They took away the 300 per month option so it was all on one lump sum  <response>: I would say with inflation and savings rates how they are all the theory of what is tecnically more is amounting to a difference of - 50 and is a lot of people missing the forest for the trees.The answer is psychological and only you can answer it. Are you more likely to save most if you have it in a lump sum or get it slowly? 