Reviewed by Jonathan Teplitsky · Updated August 2026. Informational only, not legal, tax, or benefits advice; Rank and Pay is not affiliated with the Department of Defense.

What terminal leave is

Terminal leave is regular, chargeable leave you use in one continuous block immediately before your separation or retirement date. You complete out-processing (turning in gear and clearing your final medical and admin appointments) and then stop reporting for duty. But you are still on active duty during that stretch: your pay, Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Subsistence, and TRICARE coverage all continue exactly as they did while you were working, per the Department of Defense's DoD Instruction 1327.06, the governing leave policy across all branches.

How much terminal leave you can take

Your terminal leave amount is simply whatever leave balance you have built up and haven't used. Service members earn leave at a fixed rate of 2.5 days per month, which comes out to 30 days a year. The standard cap on how much leave you can carry from one fiscal year (which runs October 1 to September 30) into the next is 60 days. Balance above that cap is generally lost if you don't use or sell it back in time, per Military OneSource. That means the leave figure on your current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) is the real ceiling on your terminal leave, not the theoretical 30 days a year you're earning.

Same rule, different name by branch

Terminal leave itself is a single DoD-wide policy: there is no separate Army terminal leave rule versus a Navy or Air Force one. What differs is the term each branch uses for your separation date on paperwork and in conversation. The Army calls it ETS (Expiration of Term of Service), the Navy and Coast Guard use EAOS (End of Active Obligated Service), the Marine Corps uses EAS (End of Active Service), and the Air Force and Space Force use DOS (Date of Separation). If you're coordinating terminal leave with your finance or personnel office, use your branch's term so nothing gets lost in translation.

Terminal leave vs. selling your leave back: the tax difference most guides skip

You don't have to take terminal leave with unused days. You can also sell back up to 60 days of leave over your career for a cash payout instead. The two options are taxed in genuinely different ways, and the distinction rarely gets spelled out clearly:

That 22% flat rate can end up higher or lower than your actual marginal tax rate depending on your total income for the year. If it withholds more than you owe, the difference comes back as part of your refund; if it withholds less, you may owe more at filing. Terminal leave, by contrast, keeps you in active-duty status (and TRICARE) for those extra weeks, which a sell-back payout does not. Neither option is automatically better: it depends on your cash-flow needs at separation and your total income for the tax year. This page isn't tax advice; a finance office or tax preparer can run your specific numbers.

Is terminal leave guaranteed, or can it be denied?

Terminal leave is not an automatic right. Like any other leave, it's approved at your command's discretion based on the needs of the service. A commander can deny a terminal leave request outright, approve a shorter block than requested, or recall a member from leave already granted if military necessity requires it. Terminal leave is also not normally granted to a service member whose separation is for misconduct. If you're planning around a terminal leave start date, whether for a move, a new job, or a SkillBridge internship, build in some margin rather than treating the date as locked until your command has actually approved it.

Terminal leave and SkillBridge

Many separating service members plan terminal leave around a SkillBridge internship in their final months of service. The two are separate programs with separate approval chains, so don't assume terminal leave automatically starts the moment SkillBridge ends, or vice versa. See the site's SkillBridge guide for how the timing typically works, and confirm the specifics with your transition office before you lock in plans.

When to submit your terminal leave request

There's no single DoD-wide deadline, so check with your unit's personnel or finance office as soon as you have a separation date. In practice, submitting your leave request well before your final out-processing appointments gives your command time to review your accrued balance, confirm it against your LES, and route the approval before your separation paperwork is finalized. Waiting until the last few weeks risks a shortened terminal leave block if your unit needs extra processing time.