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In the military - changing state of residence?

S

seti920

Member
Hi. I enlisted last november.

Ran into someone who said that lots of USAF change their state of residence to Texas, because there's no state income tax.

Wondering if anyone here knows something/anything about this, how to do it, etc.

Many thanks from an E-3 at tax time.
 
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Tennessee don't have income tax
 
Here is a pdf document that explains it all pretty simply and tells you how to change your state of residence if you fit the requirements. Good luck!

I know my husband changed his state of residence to Florida early on in his service. He was born there, retired there and we still live there.
 
You can put any state of residence on your W4.

The government will honor it.

They will also notify the state that you enlisted from that you are changing the residence.

Some states will send you a nasty letter (mine did) stating that you are considered a resident of the state that you lived in when you went active.
However, the Feds will not change the withholding state unless you direct them to.

It would be best to change the state of residence when you are actually in a non-tax state; that way the Feds hands are clean.
 
It's also worth checking to see if your home state has a military clause concerning income taxes.

NY (where I was born & raised, and haven't lived in since I enlisted 26 years ago) has a clause that says that as long as a military member doesn't reside in the state for more than 30 days a year (coincidentally, the amount of leave you earn in a year), they're exempt from paying state income taxes for that year.

That's pretty amazing from a state like NY, where they always seemed to be out of money, and wanting more taxes! I kept my NY residency while I was stationed in CA, so I didn't have to pay state taxes there, and have lived in no income tax areas since I got out in 1990. 🙂
 
I was told that you only had to have the intent to move to the listed state upon departing from the service. Was a non-issue for me though, since I lived in Illinois (no tax state) and claimed residency in Tennessee (no tax state).

My actual house is in TN.


Edit - Are you using militaryonesource.com to do your taxes? Should be a free version of turbotax for all military personnel. I used it myself, and it was incredibly easy.
 
Some states will try anything to get your taxes. When we were stationed in NC, my husband attempted to enroll in a state university there for his master's degree. NC denied him in-state tuition saying that he was not a resident. After we moved to Europe, though, they sent us a letter claiming we owed them state income taxes for the years we we going to live in Germany since we were "residents" by virtue of the fact that we had a bank account in NC.

My husband sent them a copy of the letter in which NC said he was NOT a resident and we never heard another word from them.
 
When I got stationed in Texas, I changed mine until the last two years of my career when I was in Florida and I changed to Florida because they also had no state income tax.
 
if you change your home of record, then when you get out, they'll move you back (if you want) to that new home of record, not where you enlisted. keep this in mind if you choose to change your home of record.

i think you have to be stationed in the state you change your home of record to at the time
 
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