Subchapter V. Taxes and Public Lands

50 U.S.C. § 4001: Your Tax Home Stays Put on Military Orders

Official heading: Residence for tax purposes

In one line

Fixes your tax home. Neither you nor your spouse gains or loses a residence or domicile for tax purposes by being somewhere on military orders, and a couple may elect either spouse’s domicile or the duty station state for any tax year.

Military pay is not income from sources within a State where you serve on orders but are not domiciled; a spouse’s earned income gets the same treatment
Personal property (including cars) is not taxable by the host State, except property used in a trade or business
A host State may not use nonresident military pay to raise the tax on other income

Text checked October 9, 2026

What § 4001 does to your money

Section 4001 can be worth thousands a year to anyone stationed in a state with a higher income tax than home. You neither lose nor acquire a residence or domicile for tax purposes by being present in or absent from a state solely because of military orders. Your military pay is not treated as earned in the state where you serve unless you are a resident there.

The same rule covers a spouse who is in the state solely to be with you on orders: the spouse’s domicile does not change, and the spouse’s wages are not treated as earned there. Since 2023 a married couple may elect, for any tax year of the marriage, to use the servicemember’s domicile, the spouse’s domicile, or the servicemember’s permanent duty station, regardless of when they married.

Personal property, cars included, has no tax situs in the duty-station state, so the state you are stationed in cannot charge you personal property tax on your car, and the relief does not depend on paying tax to your home state. Two limits: property used in a trade or business can be taxed, and the duty state cannot use your military pay to push other income it may tax into a higher bracket.

Guides on this site that apply § 4001

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.
MSRRA: How a Military Spouse Keeps One Tax State
Keep one home state through every PCS and elect the servicemember's state to cut income tax. Stop paying a state you live in only for orders.
SCRA for Military Spouses & Families: What You Get
What the SCRA gives spouses and dependents: eviction protection in your own right, the cap on joint debt, MSRRA tax residency, and license portability.
States That Don't Tax Military Retirement Pay: 38 of 51, Arizona 100%
38 of 51 jurisdictions tax none of your military retirement pay, 12 tax part of it, DC taxes all. Each row read on the state's own tax site, dated.
The Military Car Tax Exemption: Skip Duty-State Property Tax
Under SCRA § 4001 your duty state cannot tax your car. Virginia families save $500-$1,500 a year. Your state's form, office and deadline, each verified.
The SCRA and MLA Benefits Most People Never Use
The lawful SCRA and MLA plays servicemembers rarely claim: 6% on your mortgage, penalty-free lease exits, a paused lawsuit, and tax you stop paying.

2 of the site’s state pages also cite § 4001 when they compare a state law to the federal rule.

The full text of 50 U.S.C. § 4001

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) Residence or domicile

(1) In general

A servicemember shall neither lose nor acquire a residence or domicile for purposes of taxation with respect to the person, personal property, or income of the servicemember by reason of being absent or present in any tax jurisdiction of the United States solely in compliance with military orders.

(2) Spouses

A spouse of a servicemember shall neither lose nor acquire a residence or domicile for purposes of taxation with respect to the person, personal property, or income of the spouse by reason of being absent or present in any tax jurisdiction of the United States solely to be with the servicemember in compliance with the servicemember's military orders.

(3) Election

For any taxable year of the marriage, a servicemember and the spouse of such servicemember may elect to use for purposes of taxation, regardless of the date on which the marriage of the servicemember and the spouse occurred, any of the following:

(A) The residence or domicile of the servicemember.

(B) The residence or domicile of the spouse.

(b) Military service compensation

Compensation of a servicemember for military service shall not be deemed to be income for services performed or from sources within a tax jurisdiction of the United States if the servicemember is not a resident or domiciliary of the jurisdiction in which the servicemember is serving in compliance with military orders.

(c) Income of a military spouse

Income for services performed by the spouse of a servicemember shall not be deemed to be income for services performed or from sources within a tax jurisdiction of the United States if the spouse is not a resident or domiciliary of the jurisdiction in which the income is earned because the spouse is in the jurisdiction solely to be with the servicemember serving in compliance with military orders.

(d) Personal property

(1) Relief from personal property taxes

The personal property of a servicemember or the spouse of a servicemember shall not be deemed to be located or present in, or to have a situs for taxation in, the tax jurisdiction in which the servicemember is serving in compliance with military orders.

(2) Exception for property within member's domicile or residence

This subsection applies to personal property or its use within any tax jurisdiction other than the servicemember's or the spouse's domicile or residence.

(3) Exception for property used in trade or business

This section does not prevent taxation by a tax jurisdiction with respect to personal property used in or arising from a trade or business, if it has jurisdiction.

(4) Relationship to law of State of domicile

Eligibility for relief from personal property taxes under this subsection is not contingent on whether or not such taxes are paid to the State of domicile.

(e) Increase of tax liability

A tax jurisdiction may not use the military compensation of a nonresident servicemember to increase the tax liability imposed on other income earned by the nonresident servicemember or spouse subject to tax by the jurisdiction.

(f) Federal Indian reservations

An Indian servicemember whose legal residence or domicile is a Federal Indian reservation shall be taxed by the laws applicable to Federal Indian reservations and not the State where the reservation is located.

(g) Definitions

For purposes of this section:

(1) Personal property

The term "personal property" means intangible and tangible property (including motor vehicles).

(2) Taxation

The term "taxation" includes licenses, fees, or excises imposed with respect to motor vehicles and their use, if the license, fee, or excise is paid by the servicemember in the servicemember's State of domicile or residence.

(3) Tax jurisdiction

The term "tax jurisdiction" means a State or a political subdivision of a State.

Enacted and amended by: (Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title V, §511, as added Pub. L. 108-189, §1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2858; amended Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a), Nov. 11, 2009, 123 Stat. 3008; Pub. L. 115-407, title III, §302(a), Dec. 31, 2018, 132 Stat. 5373; Pub. L. 117-333, §18, Jan. 5, 2023, 136 Stat. 6137.)

What changed, and when

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s amendment notes for § 4001, newest first.

2023: Subsec. (a)(2), (3). Pub. L. 117-333 added pars. (2) and (3) and struck out former par. (2) which related to residence of spouses of servicemembers for tax purposes.
2018: Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 115-407 designated existing provisions as subpar. (A), inserted heading, and added subpar. (B).
2009: Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(1), designated existing provisions as par. (1), inserted heading, and added par. (2). Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(3), added subsec. (c). Former subsec. (c) redesignated (d). Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(2), redesignated subsec. (c) as (d). Former subsec. (d) redesignated (e). Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(4)(A), inserted "or the spouse of a servicemember" after "The personal property of a servicemember". Subsec. (d)(2). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(4)(B), inserted "or the spouse's" after "servicemember's". Subsecs. (e) to (g). Pub. L. 111-97, §3(a)(2), redesignated subsecs. (d) to (f) as (e) to (g), respectively.

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.

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