Legal offices and financial counselors have been saying it for years: try to be consistent in demonstrating your state of legal residence. And there are always some military service members and family members who insist that it doesn’t matter, that no one has ever challenged them, and that the legal and financial folks are just being alarmist.
While it’s true that relatively few military folks have their state of legal residence challenged, it does happen. (Heck, we got a tax bill for 2010 from Maryland last year. Go figure.) And when it does happen, it’s hard to defend yourself against that challenge if you have a driver’s license in one state, your cars are registered in another state, and you’re voting in a third state, none of which are the place where you’re living. In particular, I remember a service member who was stationed in Virginia but was claiming to be a resident of Texas. Virginia came knocking, asking for state taxes. The service member had, over the years, gotten a Virginia driver’s license, registered to vote in Virginia, and he owned a house in Virginia. Ultimately, the service member was unable to prove that he had maintained any ties to Texas, and he was liable for many years of past Virginia state taxes.
The Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018, which permits military spouses to “use” their active duty husband or wife’s state of legal residence for purposes of taxes and voting, is likely to make those challenges more frequent. Now, I don’t have proof of that, but it is the opinion of a lot of smart folks within the military legal and tax community. As states continue to lose more and more revenue from military families, and with the advent of data sharing that makes it easier to see where any individual is voting, registering their cars, and maintaining their driver’s licenses, I believe that we will see more challenges of folks who are claiming legal residence in a state without backing that claim up with concrete actions.
It’s my recommendation (you know, as a non-lawyer and non-tax professional) that you remain pro-active about maintaining everything possible in your state of legal residence. This includes declaring that state in your will, renewing your driver’s licenses there (assuming you aren’t stationed in a state that requires you to change), maintaining vehicle registrations, registering to vote (and actually voting), and any other things that come your way. It’s often a little bit more work, and sometimes it is a little more expensive, but that’s a small price to pay for being able to defend the state you’re claiming as home.
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Hi Katie – looking for some guidance on my own specific scenario. I am a Florida resident (vehicles registered and insured here, registered to vote here, etc) and I will be relocating with my active duty spouse to NC next month due to his military orders. NC is a state that I am not required to change my drivers license to, so would you suggest I keep my vehicle registered and insured in Florida as well even though we’re being temporarily relocated to NC? I understand the vehicle being registered in FL, but I would think I’m required to insure my car in the state it’s parked, so in this case soon to be NC? And advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Your vehicle must always be insured where it is parked. Otherwise, I would keep everything in Florida. We have maintained our Florida driver’s licenses for 27 years, and we make sure we always vote. We’ve had to register our vehicles overseas, but otherwise we keep them registered in Florida. Our wills say that we are Florida residents. It can be a hassle, but it is very important to me that I am consistent 🙂
Hope your move goes smoothly.
You are soooo helpful, thank you! One last question – what do you have listed as your Florida driver’s license address? Right now mine reflects the apartment we live in in Florida, but when we move to North Carolina we will have a new address and our address in Florida won’t be current. How are you ensuring your Florida registration and license are updated to reflects your new out of state address?
I’m not 100% sure about the process, but the Florida DMV asks you to update your address. You have to present some proof, like a utility bill or something, and they’ll change the address.
You make some great points about having some ties to the state your claiming. I think it can fall into a tricky slope if you’re getting the perks but not bringing in revenue. They actually will track you down. When I was a California resident but living in Japan they sent vehicle registration notices to my APO box.