I have a tax/voter registration question...?

Question

My husband is active duty ARMY and he claims Texas as his state of residence even though we live in Colorado now. We moved here 8 months ago and own a house here. Now I have a fulltime job (not a DOD job) and have state taxes taken out of my check. Can I register to vote here in Colorado even though my husband claims Texas?

Answer 1

Active duty military are protected under the Soldier's and Sailor's Civil Relief Act. Their domicile does not change when they move to a permanent duty station in another state. Those protections do NOT extend to family members however, leaving their status up to the whim of the states.

Your income is subject to CO income tax. It wouldn't matter if it was a DOD job or not. That is inescapable. The matter of your domicile is another matter entirely. Some states allow dependents to maintain their home state license and car tags and others do not. Some presume you to have changed your domicile and others do not. Your best bet is to consult with the folks at the JAG office on base. They will know how CO treats dependents as far as domicile issues are concerned. In general however if you wish to claim CO as your domicile and take the usual actions to establish CO residency such as get a CO license and register to vote in CO there's nothing that the state of CO can do to stop you.

To give you an idea how chaotic things can be, when I was stationed in IL, my wife was required to get an IL license within 30 days of her arrival. Under IL law she was now domiciled in IL and that was that. When we were stationed in VA she was allowed to keep her TX license as long as she did not work, vote, or register a car in VA.

As a former domiciliary of TX, I can tell you that their laws are all over the radar screen. Some counties in TX attempted to bar voting in local elections by active duty military residents who had been stationed outside the local area for an extended period of time back in the 1980s and 1990s. The Feds stepped in and put a stop to that abuse as it was clearly in violation of Federal law. However they did NOT bar the exclusion of dependents claiming TX domicile from voting in local issues if they didn't actually live in the local jurisdiction. Oddly enough TX does seem to honor the out-of-state domicile of dependents of military personnel stationed in TX. Pretty typical of TX politics, IMHO.

Answer 2

The state where one spouse is registered to vote and where the other spouse claims to live for tax purposes can be different. Married couples that live in separate states (for whatever reason) must do this.

If you (the wife) are a Colorado resident, then you must pay Colorado income tax on all your (the wife's) income, including investments, bank interest, etc., (but not your husband's income), must either register to vote in Colorado or not vote at all, and cannot vote in Texas elections legally.

If you (the wife) are a Texas resident, then you must pay Colorado income tax only on your income from work as a civilian in Colorado (not on your husband's military income or either person's bank interest, etc.) and must not register to vote in Colorado elections or Colorado polling places. You can apply to vote in Texas elections, Presidential elections, etc., by absent ballot, which you can have mailed to your Colorado address by the Texas election authorities, so that you can vote while in Colorado. You can also register while in Colorado, by using a Texas registration form and mailing the completed form to Texas.

Answer 3

As the spouse of an active member, you can maintain a Texas legal residency or change it to Colorado. If you claim Colorado, you need to go "all the way" (drivers license, voter reg. etc.).

You will have to pay Colorado income tax on YOUR income, but if you maintain Texas residency and file jointly with your husband as Texas residents, your total tax bite should be less.

Answer 4

they'll in all probability require you to stay there for a three hundred and sixty 5 days till now offering you with residency. they'll in all probability elect information of residency, like charges sent on your FL handle, and so on. I basically regarded at UCF for graduate college and replaced into attempting to be sure the comparable factor. Out-of-state classes is ridiculous.

Answer 5

You would register to vote in Colorado as that is your primary residence.