No State Income Tax

[emanxl]

I’ve received OCONUS orders and have asked myself, why should I pay taxes to a state I won’t live at anymore?

I was thinking about taking a flight down to Florida to buy a P.O. box and get a new drivers license, and switching my address to that P.O. box with admin so taxes won’t be deducted from my LES. I was also thinking, why not have a military address at whatever command I’m currently at?

I’m all for paying my fair share, and I of course should speak to a tax professional on this matter to make sure everything is legal.

What are your solutions to getting around this problem?

 

[resjudicata]

@emanxl Dang you found the secret loophole that 99% of people don’t know about….

In all seriousness that’s not how tax domicile works. Think about it, wouldn’t everyone just open a PO Box on their Disney trip?

Also ignore all the home of record talk here. You need to learn about tax domicile. HOR is internal to the military and has nothing to do with your tax domicile.

 

[tsundoku]

@emanxl Hopefully the moderators leave this up but flag it as "WHAT NOT TO DO"... This is tax fraud that would be easily spotted and heavily penalized.

 

[stephaniel988]

@emanxl I'd recommend against tax evasion. In order to do it legally you need to be stationed in the state and sign an affidavit that says basically you intend to reside there again. To make things really tidy it is best to get a driver's license and register to vote. Having a PO box doesn't cut it when the tax man comes and hits you with failure to file and failure to pay penalties.

 

[lfedora]

@emanxl If you didn’t get Florida, Texas or Washington residency by now you are stuck with what you have.

 

[prayncrochet]

@emanxl What state taxes military members?

 

[sir_cumference]

@prayncrochet CA will not tax military members (CA residents) as long as you are stationed outside of the state.

 

[nw35]

@prayncrochet Oregon won't tax any income if you are stationed out of state

 

[4thwatch]

@prayncrochet Georgia

 

[moichepit]

@prayncrochet For starters, MD. And so does CA if you’re stationed inside CA

 

[lfedora]

@moichepit They’ve tried, but they can’t tax out of state residents on orders to California.

 

[keyboard0012]

@lfedora Notice that they said inside CA

 

[lfedora]

@keyboard0012 Notice that OP hasn’t declared current state of residency.

California does not tax non-California residents on Active Duty orders stationed in California.

California does tax California residents on AD orders stationed in California.

California does not tax California residence on AD orders outside the state of California.

California will also try to come after non-California residents for state income tax five years after they left the state and active duty. Ask me how I know.

I’m guessing OP is California resident .

 

[sh419ob]

@lfedora Yup, they tried to fine me for not filing state taxes in 2020. I’m a CO resident. My fine was over $2,000.

 

[leboann]

@sh419ob What did you do when they tried to fine you?

 

[sh419ob]

@leboann I called and they said I had time to talk to a tax person and figure it out. I ended up forgetting about it for months until I got a final notice saying that I was getting charged interest and that my wages would get garnished if I didn’t pay within 15 days. I called the office again and it took a lot of explaining for them to finally figure it out. All I had to do was fax them a copy of the notice, my W2 and my taxes. I never got a confirmation though, so I might not be in the clear yet. I’ve been meaning to follow up.

 

[lfedora]

@sh419ob They’ll try for three years, no necessarily consecutively. Just hoping you can’t provide the evidence and then they’ll garnish. I had my bank account count frozen by those fucks.

 

[sh419ob]

@lfedora That’s wild. The first lady I spoke to said that my account was flagged because I have a mortgage in CA. She said with my income, they don’t expect me to be able to afford it on my own, so they’re assuming I was getting rental income. Mind you, when I closed, I was an E5 about to hit 10 years. I also closed a couple weeks before the stay at home order, so I started with a 3.375% interest rate. I did an IRRL six months later and got 2.25%. I only got that place because I knew I could afford it on my own without having to get a roommate. My 1st of the month paycheck covered everything, including utilities and I was able to save everything on the 15th.

 

[lfedora]

@sh419ob That’s what precipitated my ordeal… Florida resident stationed in California, refinancing my still owned Florida investment property… Flagged in the California state system, as must be a resident.
Freeze all my bank accounts until I could provide evidence as to not being a California resident, and then having to provide evidence as to why I wasn’t a California resident i.e. orders.
2014, 2016 and 2018 they tried this.

 

[sh419ob]

@lfedora What? That’s even worse. You weren’t even linked to California besides being stationed here. I know someone who got one of these notices, but he did Amazon delivery for a while. That situation makes complete sense, yours doesn’t. It seems like they’re complete crooks who are hoping that people would rather pay out of ignorance or because they don’t feel like fighting back.