How are military spouses affected by the November 2009 amendment to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act?
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003, as amended on Nov. 11, 2009, is a federal law which provides that a state cannot consider a servicemember or his/her spouse to be a resident or to be domiciled in a tax jurisdiction simply because he/she is present in a tax jurisdiction — or absent from a tax jurisdiction — due to military orders of the servicemember, provided that the servicemember and spouse are domiciled in the same jurisdiction. Additionally, the 2009 amendment to the Act provides that the wage and salary income of the nonresident spouse of a servicemember, who is domiciled in a different tax jurisdiction and is residing in a tax jurisdiction solely due to the military orders of his/her spouse, is excluded from taxation by that jurisdiction on income earned for services performed or from sources within the jurisdiction. This provision does not apply to taxable years prior to 2009. However, the servicemember and spouse may be liable for income tax in their jurisdiction of
