For most people, the first time and repeat home buyer tax credits ended after April 30.

The government has made an exception for certain military personnel and other people stationed away from home. Those individuals have an extra year to file for and receive a first time or repeat home buyer tax credit.

The people who have an extra year to receive a credit are members of the uniformed services, Foreign Services or are employees of the intelligence community and were on qualified extended duty for at least 90 days during the period beginning after Dec. 31, 2008 and ending before May 1, 2010. According to the instructions to IRS Form 5405 – the document that must be filed by anyone wanting to receive a tax credit – qualified individuals who purchase a home before May 1, 2011 can claim the credit.

Confusing? Perhaps. However, the aforementioned Form 5405 does clear up things a bit. People in the military who were on qualified extended duty 50 at least miles from his or her main home, or was living in government quarters under government orders may qualify for an additional year.

It’s not just military personnel who might take advantage of the additional year to receive the credit. People who served in the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Public Health Service may also qualify. Foreign Service members and intelligence community employees also get an additional year to apply for the credit.

Again, the exact requirements for people qualified for the additional year to file the credit are located in the instructions of the aforementioned Form 5405. That form can easily be found on the Internet through your favorite search engine or visiting with an account, real estate agent, banker or someone else who deals regularly with helping people figure out if they qualify for a home buyer tax credit.

The reason we at the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) are mentioning this extension is that we’ve learned that some people simply don’t know about it. In our view, anyone who has served this nation – and there are a lot of them here in Arkansas – deserves to know about the extension so that they might take advantage of it.

While there’s no doubt the home buyer tax credits that have been in place in one form or another since 2008 have boosted sales, it’s also true that a lot of buyers have benefited from receiving some cash back from the government after purchasing homes.

We at the ARA want to make sure that everyone who can benefit from the credit does so, and that’s doubly true when it comes to individuals who have served their country and have earned some more time to claim the credit.

We’re particularly determined to inform those individuals they may have more time to file for a credit around the Fourth of July. That just seems appropriate.

This column is part of the House to House series, which is written by Ethan C. Nobles and distributed weekly to newspapers throughout Arkansas on behalf of the Arkansas Realtors Association.