Confused on where to file state taxes as a military spouse

[user17525940873]

My husband's (service member) home of record is Kansas. A while back, I went through the process of changing all my stuff (license, etc.) to Kansas as well to both be Kansas residents. We file our taxes jointly. He just changed his state of residence to Texas, as that is where we will likely end up after he retires in a few years because that's where my family lives, but now I am totally confused. We are currently living in California for his orders and will be here a few more years. I am a 1099 employee. Is there a way I can also claim Texas as my state of residency? Am I still allowed to keep Kansas as my state even though he switched his or does that now nullify my spouse right to claim his state? I imagine not at this point because I am registered to vote there, have a DL, etc. However, we did all these changes way back when so we could simplify everything and file everything easily, but now it's back to slightly more complicated. Basically - is there any way for me to also claim Texas? Or do I just keep Kansas and we file state taxes separately?

[SteamTrain]

@user17525940873 

You might need to have a discussion with any Post legal / Family services about this.  There are a few things in your post that are not yet clear.

__________________

Here's my take on that, though some of your details could affect the proper procedure....and thus the suggestion to use any post legal services available.

1)  You indicate that he is PCS'd to  CA and you both are thus living there......but also say that he "recently" changed his State of Legal Residence (SLR) to TX.   Well, "recently" isn't clear since y'all are posted/ living in CA....So, did he make that change while he was at a PCS post in TX or not?  Because he cannot do that change if he was already PCS'd to a station in CA.  i.e. did he file a DD2058 while he was posted in TX, and was it accepted by this TX post's  HR/Payroll folks?  If not, then I don't see that he could have legally changed his SLR to TX now.  (though I could imagine timing of the submission of the DD2058 just before being PCS'd to CA could complicate the situation)

___________________

If he did change his SLR while still at his PCS post in TX...but what was actually "recent" was that he later was PCS'd to CA...then:

2)  As-of the date his DD2058 was accepted, TX became his SLR.....but for the year in which he made the change, he needs for file a part-year KS tax return for that year where all of his/your income is taxed by KS up-until the date of that acceptance date.

3)  Can you also now claim TX as your own SLR state?  As far as I can see...that's a Yes.   The  giant BUT to that is that I'm not sure how you wrangle your driver's license & voting situation. 

4)  By claiming/changing to TX for yourself, you can no longer legally Vote in KS....and you are not living in TX so probably can't get a TX driver's license or voters registration, and TX would be the only location you would be allowed to vote (absentee). Perhaps (?) you could keep the  KS drivers license as long as it hasn't expired, or get a new DL in CA, but not register to vote there, nor take other steps to become a legal CA resident.  CA used to require civilian spouses to get CA DL's even if they were claiming the SLR of another state along with the military member.....I'm not sure what CA requires now for the civilian spouses who move to a CA post (again, time for post legal/family services?)

5)  AND if TX is his SLR now, and now you both are living/posted in CA, you cannot maintain KS as your SLR...you either start to claim TX as your SLR..... or you become a CA resident and file part-year KS/CA for the year in which you moved to CA.  You either lock yourself in with his SLR state, or would need to become a resident of whatever state you actually live in.

6) If you start claiming TX as your SLR, your 1099-NEC work (meaning self-employed gig work of any type), if done while you are physically in CA, that 1099-NEC income is CA taxable income as a non-resident. Only your working W-2 income would be exempt from CA taxation.

Of course all of this depends on what really happened in #1 above.

Complicated enough that post legal or family services of some type could clarify some of the hazy areas where I could be off-base, or not quite right on, (or just plain wrong??)