Confusing residency situation

[tngrl]

I am trying to do my future daughter in laws taxes and am trying to figure out what I should say her residence is for federal taxes.  She is a graduate student going to school in Vermont.  When she is not in Vermont she is living in Tennessee with my son.  They are engaged to be married this coming November and she works for a company in Tennessee as a 1099 remote contract employee while she is going to school.  She intends to work as a regular employee for that same company once she graduates this May (already offered and accepted the job) and returns to Tennessee.  She intends to return to and continue to live in Tennessee once she graduates.  However, where it gets dicey is that her driver's license and car registration is still from the state of Virginia where she lived with her mom prior to being an undergraduate student in Tennessee.  She has not actually lived in Virginia at any time of the year for several years now.  She has not been claimed as a dependent for several years either.  But, she has never changed her driver's license and car registration simply because she hasn't needed to and since she has rented different places and her address changes year to year, she didn't feel it necessary.  Residency rules and domicile rules often rely on where a person intends to return which would be Tennessee.  We are not really worried about the state tax issues here as I don't think she made enough that she would be required to file in Virginia even if they still wanted to consider her a resident.  She will definitely need to file as a non-resident of Vermont.  And, TN doesn't have a state tax.  But for federal purposes, can she claim her residence as Tennessee since that is where she holds an ongoing job and where she intends to return even though that is not what the address on her driver's license?  

[AnnetteB6]

The Federal return is not really concerned with which state a person lives in.  The Federal return only needs an address entered that will be used to contact the taxpayer in the future with regard to the return they are filing.  They may need to send a letter, they may need to send a refund, or use the address for another reason.  It just needs to be a current address that can be used to contact the taxpayer if needed.

That being said, if the address in Tennessee is likely to be her 'permanent' address after graduation in May, that is the one you should put on the tax return.