Cumberland County: Personal Property Tax Exemption for Nonresident Service Members and Spouses

Federal law, 50 U.S.C. 4001(d), says the personal property of a service member or spouse has no tax situs where the member is stationed under orders, unless it is the member's or spouse's home state or the property is used in a business. Cumberland County Tax Administration applies it to the vehicle tax billed with a North Carolina registration, and to mobile homes and other personal property. Real property and business personal property are taxed, and so are other dependants' vehicles. The service member. Send the end-of-month Leave and Earnings Statement for the month and year the vehicle was last registered with the North Carolina DMV, showing the ETS date, with the tag number or tax bill, to Cumberland County Tax Administration, PO Box 449, Fayetteville, NC 28302, by fax to 910-678-7582 or by email to [email protected]. The bill marks whether a full or a 50% exemption was applied; with the 50% exemption, town vehicle fees for Fayetteville, Hope Mills, Spring Lake and Stedman are still payable in full. The spouse. The county's Military Spouses Residency Relief Act form, revised June 2023, asks every year for the member's LES showing nonresident status, the military ID, and proof of the domicile state: that state's income tax return and one more document, or two documents if the state has no income tax, from a list that includes voter registration, a driver licence and vehicle registration. Where the county's form is behind federal law. The form says the spouse keeps a domicile only "as long as the residence or domicile is the same for the servicemember and the spouse", and "Sponsor and spouse must have resided in the same domiciliary state." That was the 2009 Act. Since Public Law 117-333 in January 2023, 50 U.S.C. 4001(a)(3) lets a member and spouse elect, for any tax year of the marriage and whenever they married, to use the member's domicile, the spouse's domicile or the member's permanent duty station. A spouse who never lived in the member's home state can elect it. A spouse refused on the old test should cite section 4001(a)(3).