Subchapter V. Taxes and Public Lands
50 U.S.C. § 3991: SCRA Protection From Property Tax Sales
Official heading: Taxes respecting personal property, money, credits, and real property
In one line
Protects your home, land, and personal property (including cars) from being sold for property taxes or assessments that fell due before or during service, unless a court finds service does not affect your ability to pay. Interest is capped at 6%.
- No tax sale except by court order after a finding that service does not materially affect ability to pay; the court may stay proceedings through service plus 180 days
- The right to redeem property sold for taxes runs through service and 180 days after
- Unpaid tax bears interest at 6% per year with no additional penalty or interest
Text checked October 9, 2026
What § 3991 does to your money
This section protects your property from a tax sale, not from the tax. It covers unpaid taxes or assessments, other than personal income tax, on your personal property, vehicles included, and on real property that you, your dependents or your employees occupied as a home, office, business or farm before you entered service and still occupy.
That property may not be sold to collect the tax except by court order, after the court decides military service does not materially affect your ability to pay. A court may stay collection or a sale during service and for up to 180 days after. If the property is sold or forfeited anyway, you can redeem it, or sue to redeem it, during service or within 180 days after, and a longer state redemption period still applies.
The money rule: unpaid tax on covered property bears interest at 6% a year until paid, and no other penalty or interest can be added for the nonpayment. Property you own jointly with a dependent is covered too. Whether a duty-station state can tax your car at all is a different question, answered by § 4001.
Guides on this site that apply § 3991
- Military State Income Tax: The SCRA Election, Deferral & Tax Sales
A service member and spouse can each elect the member's home state, the spouse's, or the duty station for state tax (§ 4001). Plus SCRA tax deferrals.
The full text of 50 U.S.C. § 3991
From the United States Code, 2024 Edition, current through January 6, 2025, as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office on GovInfo (retrieved October 10, 2026). No amendment enacted after the edition cutoff was found on Cornell LII or in GovInfo’s compiled SCRA (amended through Pub. L. 118-159, Dec. 23, 2024). House style: the Code’s em dashes before a list are shown as colons, and en dashes as hyphens or “to”; no word of the text is changed.
(a) Application
This section applies in any case in which a tax or assessment, whether general or special (other than a tax on personal income), falls due and remains unpaid before or during a period of military service with respect to a servicemember's:
(1) personal property (including motor vehicles); or
(2) real property occupied for dwelling, professional, business, or agricultural purposes by a servicemember or the servicemember's dependents or employees:
(A) before the servicemember's entry into military service; and
(B) during the time the tax or assessment remains unpaid.
(b) Sale of property
(1) Limitation on sale of property to enforce tax assessment
Property described in subsection (a) may not be sold to enforce the collection of such tax or assessment except by court order and upon the determination by the court that military service does not materially affect the servicemember's ability to pay the unpaid tax or assessment.
(2) Stay of court proceedings
A court may stay a proceeding to enforce the collection of such tax or assessment, or sale of such property, during a period of military service of the servicemember and for a period not more than 180 days after the termination of, or release of the servicemember from, military service.
(c) Redemption
When property described in subsection (a) is sold or forfeited to enforce the collection of a tax or assessment, a servicemember shall have the right to redeem or commence an action to redeem the servicemember's property during the period of military service or within 180 days after termination of or release from military service. This subsection may not be construed to shorten any period provided by the law of a State (including any political subdivision of a State) for redemption.
(d) Interest on tax or assessment
Whenever a servicemember does not pay a tax or assessment on property described in subsection (a) when due, the amount of the tax or assessment due and unpaid shall bear interest until paid at the rate of 6 percent per year. An additional penalty or interest shall not be incurred by reason of nonpayment. A lien for such unpaid tax or assessment may include interest under this subsection.
(e) Joint ownership application
This section applies to all forms of property described in subsection (a) owned individually by a servicemember or jointly by a servicemember and a dependent or dependents.
Enacted and amended by: (Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title V, §501, as added Pub. L. 108-189, §1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2854.)
Effective date: Section applicable to any case not final before Dec. 19, 2003, see section 3 of Pub. L. 108-189, set out as a note under section 3901 of this title.
Every section of the Act, including the short administrative ones without their own page, is on the section-by-section index.
Heads up: SCRA Saver publishes general information, not legal or financial advice. Laws change and every situation differs. Confirm details with your installation legal assistance office (free for service members) or a licensed professional.