I'm a military spouse & per the Veterans Benefits & Transition Act of 2018 want to claim my husband's home of record (WA) as my residence.How is that done in thesoftware?

[sunywaverider]

The option in the questions is to say that I moved to WA or lived in the sate in 2018 which is technically incorrect.  How do I properly elect WA as my state of residence within the TurboTax software?

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

Because of the Act, you will state that you lived in Washington all year.  You are considered to be a full-year resident of Washington even though you never stepped foot in Washington because of this law change.  

But the real trick is if you have a state return.  You don't mention where you were stationed in 2018, but let me go under the premise that you worked and had that state's taxes withheld because the Act didn't pass until the very end of 2018.  You will need to file a state return for that state to get back all of the taxes withheld from that state.  For most states, this will be to report a zero income from that state, although a few states have a special return to care for this.  (Please comment what is the state return in question for specific direction). 

You will not be able to e-file that state return.  Rather, across the top of the return you will write:  Per Veteran's Benefits and Trasition Act of 2018 I elect to use my husband's state of Washington as my home of record.  Mail in the return, and that state is supposed to refund you all of your taxes withheld.

[sunywaverider]

Thank you for the reply.  My husband was stationed in Kansas for the first part of 2018 then PCS'ed back to WA state.  Physically I have been living and working in Texas, but will move to CA in 2019 so want to establish my WA residence in 2018 as allowed per the law. Does the fact that we do not live together complicate things?

[DanielV01]

It can complicate it a bit, yes.  You will want to check with California's adaptation of the Act.  The idea behind the Act is to simplify filings for the spouse who accompanies his/her active duty spouse because of PCS.  If you are physically apart, the Act might not cover you.  But it is so new, that you need to check with California before you arrive to see if you are covered or not by the Act.