If New Jersey was your legal residence when you entered US military service and you have not changed it, you are still a resident of this State and you are required to file a New Jersey income tax return. You may be considered a nonresident for tax purposes, not subject to New Jersey income tax, only if you satisfy all of the following three conditions for the entire taxable year:
Barracks, billets, bachelor officer quarters, and quarters aboard ship are not considered quarters which would constitute a permanent place of abode outside this State. A permanent place of abode is one you pay for and maintain outside New Jersey, either by out-of-pocket payments or forfeiture of quarters allowance. This place of abode may be located on or off a military base, provided this base is your permanent duty station.
If you satisfy all of the criteria for the entire taxable year, you may be considered a nonresident for tax purposes, and you are not required to file a resident income tax return. For any year in which you will meet the conditions, you should file a Department of Defense Form DD-2058-1 or DD-2058-2 with your finance officer, so that New Jersey income tax will not be withheld from your pay. If New Jersey income tax was erroneously withheld, you may file a New Jersey nonresident return to recover the tax that was withheld. You must enclose a statement with the return which details the circumstances to prove that you meet the conditions of nonresidency.
In general, nonresident service personnel temporarily stationed in New Jersey are not required to file a New Jersey income tax return. However, if you or your spouse/CU partner receive income from New Jersey sources, such as a part-time job, you are required to file a New Jersey nonresident return and pay New Jersey income tax on the nonmilitary income. In general, you must use the same filing status for New Jersey gross income tax purposes that is used for Federal income tax purposes, unless you are a civil union couple. A married couple filing a joint Federal return must file a joint return in New Jersey in most cases. However, if both you and your spouse/civil union partner were nonresidents for the entire year, and only one of you received income from New Jersey sources, the spouse/civil union partner who had income from New Jersey sources may file a separate New Jersey return, even if you filed a joint Federal return. Another exception is when one spouse/civil union partner is a New Jersey resident and the other is a nonresident for the entire year. In this case the resident may file a separate return unless both agree to file jointly as residents. If a joint return is filed, their joint income will be taxed as if both were residents.
More information concerning the filing requirements of military personnel is available in Tax Topic Bulletin GIT-7, Military Personnel. Publication GIT-7 is available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. PDF formatted documents contain the same text as the original printed documents. To view them you must have a PDF viewer which is available free from Adobe.