Passed in 2009 and then amended in 2017, the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act offers military spouses certain protections while moving around on Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders. It’s important to understand that MSRRA isn’t free-standing legislation – it is amendments to the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act. The legislation is actually SCRA, MSRRA is just the way it was changed.
Unfortunately, it is an imperfect piece of legislation. It doesn’t address many of the issues that military spouses would like to see managed, such as what to do if you can’t establish residency in the same state as your spouse, or driver’s licenses, etc.
I’ve highlighted two different things. In bold is the text that is important with regard to taxation. In blue is the part that requires that the military spouse share the same domicile as the service member in order to qualify for protections under this act.
Here is the text:
AN ACT To amend the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act to guarantee the equity of spouses of military personnel with regard to matters of residency, and for other purposes.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Military Spouses Residency Relief Act’.
SECTION 2. GUARANTEE OF RESIDENCY FOR SPOUSES OF MILITARY PERSONNEL FOR VOTING PURPOSES.
(a) In General- Section 705 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 595) is amended–
(1) by striking ‘For’ and inserting the following:
‘(a) In General- For’;
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘(b) Spouses- For the purposes of voting for any Federal office (as defined in section 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431)) or a State or local office, a person who is absent from a State because the person is accompanying the person’s spouse who is absent from that same State in compliance with military or naval orders shall not, solely by reason of that absence–
‘(1) be deemed to have lost a residence or domicile in that State, without regard to whether or not the person intends to return to that State;
‘(2) be deemed to have acquired a residence or domicile in any other State; or
‘(3) be deemed to have become a resident in or a resident of any other State.’; and
(3) in the section heading, by inserting ‘and spouses of military personnel’ before the period at the end.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of contents in section 1(b) of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 501) is amended by striking the item relating to section 705 and inserting the following new item:
‘Sec. 705. Guarantee of residency for military personnel and spouses of military personnel.’.
(c) Application- Subsection (b) of section 705 of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 595), as added by subsection (a) of this section, shall apply with respect to absences from States described in such subsection (b) on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, regardless of the date of the military or naval order concerned.
SECTION 3. DETERMINATION FOR TAX PURPOSES OF RESIDENCE OF SPOUSES OF MILITARY PERSONNEL.
(a) In General- Section 511 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 571) is amended–
(1) in subsection (a)–
(A) by striking ‘A servicemember’ and inserting the following:
‘(1) IN GENERAL- A servicemember’; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
‘(2) SPOUSES- A spouse of a servicemember shall neither lose nor acquire a residence or domicile for purposes of taxation with respect to the person, personal property, or income of the spouse by reason of being absent or present in any tax jurisdiction of the United States solely to be with the servicemember in compliance with the servicemember’s military orders if the residence or domicile, as the case may be, is the same for the servicemember and the spouse.’;
(2) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), (e), and (f) as subsections (d), (e), (f), and (g), respectively;
(3) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new subsection:
‘(c) Income of a Military Spouse- Income for services performed by the spouse of a servicemember shall not be deemed to be income for services performed or from sources within a tax jurisdiction of the United States if the spouse is not a resident or domiciliary of the jurisdiction in which the income is earned because the spouse is in the jurisdiction solely to be with the servicemember serving in compliance with military orders.’; and
(4) in subsection (d), as redesignated by paragraph (2)–
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘or the spouse of a servicemember’ after ‘The personal property of a servicemember’; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘or the spouse’s’ after ‘servicemember’s’.
(b) Application- Subsections (a)(2) and (c) of section 511 of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 571), as added by subsection (a) of this section, and the amendments made to such section 511 by subsection (a)(4) of this section, shall apply with respect to any return of State or local income tax filed for any taxable year beginning with the taxable year that includes the date of the enactment of this Act.
SECTION 4. SUSPENSION OF LAND RIGHTS RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT FOR SPOUSES OF MILITARY PERSONNEL.
(a) In General- Section 508 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 568) is amended in subsection (b) by inserting ‘or the spouse of such servicemember’ after ‘a servicemember in military service’.
(b) Application- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to servicemembers in military service (as defined in section 101 of such Act (50 U.S.C. App. 511)) on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
If this law applies to you, it is important to know what it does and does not cover. There is a LOT of misinformation available on the internet, even from official sources. It is your responsibility to ensure that you truly understand the law if you are going to use it as the basis for preferential treatment in any situation. Reading the Act is the best way to know what it actually says.
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I’m a Marine Corps veteran with Texas residency, and my wife is a Marine stationed in California.
Do I need a CA drivers license to work in California? Also do I need to change residency to work in California or to get a California license?
I’m trying to get a job and they told me I’ll need a CA drivers license.
And my concern is I don’t want to change residency.
Also for Filing Taxes and I have been working in California would it be filed through California or though my residency in Texas?
Cody, California law does not require you to get a California driver’s license. However, a job may require that you get a California driver’s license, and they are permitted to do that.
Driver’s licenses are only one indicator of your residency. If you maintain all the other items in Texas, and your wife is a legal resident of Texas, then your right to remain a Texas resident is protected under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. If your wife is not a legal resident of Texas, then you are dealing with state laws. California is the 2nd most likely state to pursue you if they think that you should, in fact, be a California resident. If you can not claim the protections of the MSRRA because your do not share a state of legal residence with your active duty spouse, then you are probably going to have to become a California resident.
I hope this answers your questions. I know it is confusing and complicated.
Good luck to you!
My wife is a resident of Louisiana and I am a resident of Florida. When we do federal income tax we will file married filing joint. My wife still needs to pay LA income tax although she no longer works and makes a little bit on investments. LA makes you file as you did on your federal tax return. In this case they will tax her based on our combined income less deductions as LA looks at it as community property. We have no problem with paying the tax. The problem is tax withholding. Our admin will not change my state without me proving I am a resident of LA. We are stationed in NC and I am deployed. No way for me to prove residency in L A. Can you point me in the right direction?
Paul, there are a couple of issues here. I don’t see any evidence that you’re a resident of Louisiana, so I understand why your admin won’t change it. Why would you WANT to be a resident of Louisiana? I don’t see any benefit to you, it wouldn’t be accurate, and it will probably increase your income tax bill.
If the idea is to pay taxes so you aren’t penalized, you can do this through quarterly estimated payments.
Hello!
Could you help me with this question? My active husband and I are TX residents. He is stationed in Kansas. We own a home here, and rent out our home in TX. If we decide to sell our home in TX, let’s say, a year before he retires, will we lose our TX residency status? When we update our voter registration, driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, we always have to provide both a TX address and a current mailing address. I worry that if we sell our TX home, do we lose our TX residency status. If that is the case, how much time do we have to transition over to Kansas residency. Thank you for any help!
There is no single factor that determines residency. In general, the major indicators of residency are voter registration (and actually voting), maintaining vehicle registration, and maintaining driver’s licenses. Home ownership typically only comes in to play if you claim a homestead exemption in a state that is not where you claim your legal residence. From the information you’ve provided, there’s no reason to believe you would lose your Texas residency solely based upon selling your Texas home. (Note: not a lawyer, but this one seems pretty clear.)
This is great info! Getting a divorce and trying to flee domestic violence of my x-military spouse. The crap is hitting the fan. We lived a short stint in Mississippi & worked there for 3 months. Born in Cali and lived there a bit on and off. Was kidnapped and hauled into Arizona. Work in Idaho remotely. I have family in Washington. Can’t stay in Utah. Divorce proceedings and custody eval expected here. I need to get the eval switched to somewhere safer. I saw you had mentioned Cali as being the #2 grippiest state. I am looking into UUCJEA with protective order stuff. I’m aSo considering Chicago with friends there. I want a state eager to protect kids and to take us. My big questions:
1) Can I reclaim Mississippi if we lived there together long ago then moved with orders to Utah and stayed here after he left the military? From here to begin. The highlighted blue part says the domicile must be the same…but I don’t know if this means that I can claim Mississippi because we lived together there then in Utah and basically did most all here. I would sure like to move back there.
2) What states are grippy with residency? You said Cali is 2nd most grippy (like this as I was born here). What’s #1 and other major ones?