Do Military Spouses Need the Same Residency Exception For Taxes and Voting That Their Partners Get? (H.R. 5428)

What is H.R. 5428?

(Updated July 19, 2017)

This bill would allow the spouse of a member of the Armed Forces to choose to use the same residence as the servicemember for the purposes of taxation and voting, regardless of when the marriage occurred. It extends protections granted to servicemembers to their spouses as well by eliminating a loophole that excludes spouses who had a different state of residency at the time of their marriage.

Since the passage of the Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA) in 1942, Congress has given active duty servicemembers the ability to maintain their state of residency for tax and voting purposes even if they’re residing elsewhere because of their service. This saves servicemembers from having to legally reestablish a place of residence for tax purposes after each time they’re transferred.

Currently, this protection covers spouses as well as servicemembers, but only if the couple were residents of the state when the servicemember established residency. So in practice, under current law a spouse who married a servicemember after they had established residency would have to change their residency for tax purposes every time they move.

Argument in favor

Letting military spouses use the same state of residence that their servicemember claims is an obvious expansion of the existing exception for members of the military.

Argument opposed

In practice, this affects a very small number of servicemembers and their spouses so Congress should find something more substantive to work on.

Impact

Servicemembers and their spouses; state and local governments; and officials responsible for overseeing tax and elections.

Cost of H.R. 5428

The CBO estimates that enacting this bill would have no impact on the federal budget.

Additional Info

In-Depth: This legislation was passed by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on a voice vote and the support of eight cosponsors in the House, all of whom are Republicans.

Media:

• House Report
  
• CBO Cost Estimate