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Military Spouses Residency Relief Act question
DH is stationed in Kansas. I was also stationed here until I separated from AD in June. We have both maintained our Missouri residencies since leaving the state.
I recently started my first civilian job since leaving AD. Per the advice of my dad (who is a CPA) and a notice published by the KS Dept of Revenue (http://www.ksrevenue.org/taxnotices/notice09-12.pdf), I informed the HR person of this law and claimed "exempt" on my Kansas withholding form. I asked if they could withhold Missouri tax, and was told no. I don't really understand this since they are a national corporation, but I wasn't too concerned. My dad said that I will have to file estimated Missouri taxes quarterly if they don't withhold anything. Okay, fine.
I received my first 2 paychecks, and both show that they are withholding Kansas tax. I thought that the first one was maybe because they didn't have my withholding form processed yet. After receiving my second paycheck yesterday, I left a message with the HR person.
Considering she looked at me like I had two heads when I originally mentioned this law to her, I'm not sure how helpful she will be. Has anyone run into problems with their job and this law? How did you proceed? Do you think I should push this issue of withholding Missouri tax, or should I just be happy if I get them to not withhold Kansas tax?
Re: Military Spouses Residency Relief Act question
The easiest thing to do is to have them fix it so that they are not withholding anything and just put aside money for your Missouri tax. Resubmit your Kansas withholding form again if necessary, with a letter so that when it gets to the payroll person they take notice. If they can withhold Missouri tax, great, but I wouldn't make them go through hoops to figure it out.
See if you can speak directly with the payroll dept instead of your HR person - sometimes they are more helpful.
It's not the end of the world if they keep withholding KS tax, you'll just have to file a non-resident tax return and request a refund. I'd definitely make sure they discontinue withholding for KS though, since all the tax returns can kind of be a pain.
We just moved to Kansas as well, and I am in the process of finding work. Thanks for posting the link.
As for advice, I have also found the payroll dept to be more helpful than HR. I also agree with Dee that you should try to get it fixed asap, because it's only going to make your tax return more complicated.
Thanks for the advice about going to the payroll department. I'm really new at this civilian employment business, so I didn't even think of that. Since the HR person was the one who originally had me fill out the withholding form at orientation, I figured I should contact her.
Hopefully I get this straightened out soon! I'd like to keep our taxes as simple as possible since my dad does them for us for free. Even though he's a CPA, I would hate to make things harder on him than I have to.
I know for us, they have people on base around tax time to help us/me with them. I have found them to be really helpful with the process, since we are residents of another state and still have to file taxes "back home."