I have a new client with the following set of facts:

1)  Husband is in military and his state of residency is Florida.  Thus he files no state tax return.

2)  Husband is on active duty in Virginia.

3)  Wife is a Virginia resident with earned income in Virginia.

4)  Their prior CPA did not file a Virginia return for spouse's income claiming the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018 allows her to claim her spouse's state of residence, i.e., Florida.

I'm not sure that I agree with this based on the following:

The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act allows military spouses to declare the same state of legal residency as their spouse. The Veterans Benefits and Transition Act allows spouses to make that choice regardless of when they were married. The following conditions must be met to qualify under the MSRRA:

• The service member is living on military orders in a state that is not his/her resident state.  This is true.  He's ordered to be in Virginia.
• The spouse is in that state solely to live with the service member.  This is not true.  She is a resident of Virginia.
• Both the service member and spouse have the same resident state.  I don't even understand this one.  If they have the same resident state why would she need to make a choice?

The spouse only pays taxes on income in their state of legal residency when they meet the above conditions.  Finally, even if the conditions are met, she pays taxes to her resident state.  Which is Virginia!

Sooo………………  Am I right?  Does she need to file a Virginia return?

Thanks.

Miles and his spinning head……………………………..