____ If you were married but not domiciled in a community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin) during the taxable year, you did not claim community property benefits.
____ If you are married and living in a community property state but your spouse was not domiciled in a community property state during the taxable year, you did not claim community property benefits.
____ You did not apply Community property benefits before the date of your marriage.
____ State law must be considered before federal tax laws are applied. If you and your spouse filed separate returns, the laws of the community property state where you are domiciled govern whether you have separate or community income.
____ If your spouse retired before marriage, the retirement income received was treated as that spouse's separate income.
____ Since community property benefits do not apply to income earned before marriage, the tax withheld prior to the marriage was credited to the spouse from whom it was withheld.
____ Since you and your nonresident alien spouse did not elect to file a joint return for the tax year, you did not apply community property laws to earned income, business income, partnership income, income from separately owned property and social security income.
____ An assignment in a community property state due to military orders does not constitute establishment of domicile in that state. Your intention is for your domicile to be in the community property state and you have indicated your intention by taking actions that show you have changed your domicile to the new state.
____ The question of your domicile is mainly a matter of your intentions as indicated by your actions. You have only one domicile even if you have more than one home. You have indicated your intention to be domiciled in a particular place because you vote there; you pay state income tax there; you own property there; you have social or business ties there; or you take other actions that prove you are domiciled in a particular place.
© 1986, 1998 to 2002, Jack Warren Wade, Jr.
