Senate approves spouse state residency rules - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Senate approves spouse state residency rules

Military spouses would get the same options service members now enjoy for choosing — and keeping — a state of residency under legislation approved Thursday by the Senate as part of the 2010 defense authorization bill.

The spouse residency provision, sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., applies to voting rights, driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, property ownership and income and property taxes. It also could help in divorce cases because it makes it easier for military spouses to have property in their own name.

Burr’s proposal, which he calls the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act, was approved by voice vote as an amendment to S 1390, and the defense bill later passed the Senate by a 87-7 vote.

On voting, the proposed law says a person’s absence from a state while they are accompanying a military sponsor cannot be used to deny the right to vote in any federal, state or local election. Currently, a military spouse who moves to another state often is no longer considered a resident.

On taxes, Burr’s proposal says that spouses — like service members — do not lose or gain residency in a state as a result of a military-ordered move. This means a spouse can pay income tax in another state, a big benefit if the family’s previous state of residence had low or no state income tax, and it also applies to personal property. It would apply to tax returns beginning in the year the bill becomes law, so it would apply to 2009 taxes that must be filed in 2010.

On property rights and residency issues, moving to another state would not be considered giving up any property rights. As a result, spouses could keep and renew driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations in a state where they previously lived.

Burr, ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the amendment mirrors a bill passed earlier this year by that committee. Putting it into the defense bill is a way to achieve faster passage because the military policy bill is one of the few must-pass measures taken up in Congress each year. That means that Burr has a better chance to have the spouse residency rules become law as part of the defense bill than as a separate bill.

The House version of the defense bill does not include any military spouse residency provisions, but the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has endorsed similar legislation, making it unlikely the House will balk at Burr’s legislation being attached to the defense bill.

Burr said he considered the proposal a “simple” change. “Under current law, our military men and women, about every three years, are repositioned in the country or out of the country. Their orders change. When they make that change, it is beneficial to them, and I believe to society, that their spouses and children go with them,” Burr said.

Military personnel have been able to choose their state of residency for years, which is why so many service members claim residency in the handful of states that have no state income tax — a list that includes the military-heavy states of Alaska, Florida and Texas.

“They could choose the state in which they grew up or the state they might retire in or a state they had visited during their assignments that they thought was the best or most advantageous place for them to claim residency,” Burr said.

A key advantage, he said, is that service members don’t have to change their driver’s license, vehicle registration or voter registration every time they move, he said.

Burr said military spouses deserve the same treatment.