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Military Spouses Residency Relief Act

Great news! Somehow this bill passed through Congress completely under the radar, and despite my use of GovTrack RSS feeds, somehow I missed this until it became law. I haven’t seen any mention on military.com or other sites.

The Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act provides a lot of protections for military servicemembers. One of the most commonly used provision of the Act is the right of servicemembers to, should they desire, retain their residency in their old state as they move around in the military. This protects servicemembers from paying taxes in other states, or having to get a new drivers license each time they move, and allows them to vote in their home state, and many other advantages.

Unfortunately, the Act said absolutely nothing about spouses.

Under the law, a spouse who follows a servicemember to a new state must follow the same rules as someone who just voluntarily moves to a new state. For this reason, I’ve always advised servicemembers to register their cars in their name, rather than joint, to avoid import taxes when registering vehicles in a new state. Some problems can’t be easily overcome, however, like income taxes and voting.

To be honest, the majority of states have ignored the law’s provisions and given spouses equal protection under the law, but not all. And even if the state chooses not to enforce the law, it can put a spouse in the uncomfortable position of ignoring the law.

November 11th, Veteran’s Day, Barack Obama signed Military Spouses Residency Relief Act into law, giving spouses equal protection under the law. In a nutshell, a military spouse can retain residency in their home state, vote in their hometown, pay income taxes in their home state, This change is long overdue, and it’s a great move to help military families!