Active Military

If you are serving in the United States Armed Forces and your domicile (legal residence) is North Carolina, you must pay North Carolina income tax and North Carolina income tax should be withheld from your military pay, regardless of where you are stationed. Domicile or legal residence is an individual's permanent home. Your legal residence does not change even though you may be absent for one or more years unless you intend to change your state of residence and you take voluntary and positive actions to do so. Actions that demonstrate your intent to establish a new state of residence include: physical presence in a new location, registration of automobiles, location of bank accounts, and filing and paying local property and income tax in the new location. Without such actions, residency is not changed. A statement that a servicemember intends to carry out these actions at a later date is not sufficient.

Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, if you are a legal resident of another state who is stationed in North Carolina on military orders, you will not be taxed on your military pay by North Carolina. However, if you receive income from non-military employment, tangible property or a business located in North Carolina, you must pay the North Carolina tax on that income.

For information on military spouses, see Important Tax Information Regarding Spouses of United States Military Servicemembers.

To order the forms you will need to file your return, you may call toll-free at 1-877-252-3052 or go to our Download Tax Forms page.