The Military Spouses Residence Relief Act requires the spouse of an active duty Military member to become a resident of the same state as the Military member and it does not matter when they were married during the year. They would file a joint return in the State of GA where the military member joined as his state of residency. They would not pay NC taxes because NC follows the MSRRA guidelines. They would not file a NC return unless spouse had NC withholding erroneously withheld to get refunded. MSRRA requires the spouse to maintain the same legal residence as the military member so spouse is a GA resident upon marriage. If the spouse does not live with the military member and has a physical presence in another state then MSRRA does not apply but that does not sound like your case. Spouse, in your case, lives with the taxpayer in NC so cannot meet the TN residency requirement. Therefore, they only file a GA return and report all income to the State of GA as though married full year. If they have income property such as a rental property in TN, then they would file and pay tax on that income only in TN.