What is the Heroes Earned Retirement Opportunities (HERO) Act ?
The HERO Act was signed into law on Memorial Day 2006, allowing military servicemembers receiving combat pay to use that income as contributions toward IRAs. Prior to this legislation, servicemembers who received all of their income from tax free combat pay, were ineligible as contributors to a traditional or Roth IRA. Once the legislation was signed into law, servicemembers were able to not only begin making contributions to their retirement accounts but also amend previous tax returns (retroactive two years) to make and include contributions from previous years.
