Prominent Military Tax Benefits
Service Member Residence or Domicile
A frequent question by service members is “What is my state of residence for tax purposes?” since one’s duty station may change multiple times while serving. Luckily, the government passed a law to solve this issue. A service member continues to retain his or her home state of residence for tax purposes, even when required to move to another state under military orders. This also applies to other tax jurisdictions within a state, such as a city, county, and personal property taxes. Thus, a service member will continue to file tax returns for his or her home state and not the state where he or she is stationed.
Service Member Spouse’s Residence or Domicile
In order to simplify the tax-filing requirements of military couples, the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act of 2009 allowed military spouses to claim the same state of domicile as their service member for tax purposes, provided they had also established domicile there.
Unfortunately, spouses who had not established domicile in the same state as their service member spouse and who had earned income in the state where their spouse was stationed were still forced to file with both states (assuming both states have income tax).
New for Years Beginning in 2018
Thanks to the Veterans Benefits and Transaction Act of 2018, an individual married to a military member now has more choices. Under the act, a spouse can elect to have the same state of domicile as their service member spouse, even if they didn’t previously have the same domicile. If the non-military spouse doesn’t make that election, they can continue to choose to file in their own domicile state.
Making these choices can significantly impact the amount of state tax the spouse might have to pay. As an example, a spouse of a service member stationed in a high-income-tax state can elect to use the state of residency of the service member whose residence state has no or low state income tax and not be subject to the state taxes where his or her spouse is stationed.
Careful
It is tempting for a service member or their military spouse to declare their state of domicile to be without any state income tax such as Texas, Nevada, Florida, etc. That can get them in hot water if they do so without any connections to the state.
Non-Taxable Allowances
While all pays are taxable, most allowances are tax-exempt. The primary allowances for most individuals are BAS and BAH, which are tax-exempt. Conus COLA is one allowance that is taxable. A law change mandated that every allowance created after 1986 would be taxable. CONUS COLA was authorized in 1995 and, thus became, the first taxable allowance. Tax savings can be significant as BAS and BAH average over 30% of a member's total regular cash payments. In addition to being tax-exempt from Federal and State taxes, these allowances are also excluded from Social Security taxes.
Questions about military tax benefits
If you have questions about military tax benefits, give us a call.
