[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 578 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 578

 To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to authorize spouses of 
       servicemembers to elect to use the same residences as the 
                            servicemembers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 13, 2017

 Mr. Wittman (for himself and Mr. Issa) introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to authorize spouses of 
       servicemembers to elect to use the same residences as the 
                            servicemembers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Military Residency Choice Act''.

SEC. 2. RESIDENCE OF SPOUSES OF SERVICEMEMBERS FOR TAX PURPOSES.

    (a) Residence for Tax Purposes.--Section 511(a)(2) of the 
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 4001(a)(2)) is amended by 
adding at the end the following new sentence: ``The spouse of a 
servicemember may elect to use the same residence for purposes of 
taxation as the servicemember regardless of the date on which the 
marriage of the spouse and the servicemember occurred.''.
    (b) Applicability.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to any return of State or local income tax filed for 
any taxable year beginning with the taxable year that includes the date 
of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. RESIDENCE OF SPOUSES OF SERVICEMEMBERS FOR VOTING.

    (a) In General.--Section 705(b) of such Act is amended--
            (1) by striking ``State or local office'' and all that 
        follows through the period at the end of paragraph (3) and 
        inserting ``State or local office--''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
            ``(1) a person who is absent from a State because the 
        person is accompanying the person's spouse who is absent from 
        that same State in compliance with military or naval orders 
        shall not, solely by reason of that absence--
                    ``(A) be deemed to have lost a residence or 
                domicile in that State, without regard to whether or 
                not the person intends to return to that State;
                    ``(B) be deemed to have acquired a residence or 
                domicile in any other State; or
                    ``(C) be deemed to have become a resident in or a 
                resident of any other State; and
            ``(2) the spouse of a servicemember may elect to use the 
        same residence as the servicemember regardless of the date on 
        which the marriage of the spouse and the servicemember 
        occurred.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect on the date that is 90 days after the enactment of this 
Act.
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