@gokings814 I don't know if you read this thread, and since you seem to be the board resident financial advisor, are there state income tax implications to choosing whether to use TX or MD as your HOR?
I am not as smart as
@gokings814, nor did I stay at Holiday Inn last night (referencing an old TV commercial that you get very smart the next day after staying in their hotels overnight), but I am always a believer of the saying “it is not how much you make, but how much you get to keep and enjoy that matters”.
I believe there are things that people do not think about before joining the military, or they do but have little to zero control of.
1. Home of Record: where you join the military from could decide your future education and other benefits you are entitled to when you separate or retire from your service. Each state is different. I suggest you look up yours. It also can determine how far the military will ship your household goods when you leave your service.
2. State Income Tax: currently, seven states levy no state income tax at all: AK, WA, NV, WY, SD, TX and FL.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-individual-income-tax-rates-and-brackets-2016
Some states tax you wherever the military sends you to; some tax you only if you live within the state while on active duty. Since most of the academies require a nomination process that involve your MOCs, it is not as easy as telling our DD or DS to use grandma’s address when he/she enlists and use that as his/her Home of Record to benefit from zero income tax or potential benefits when he/she calls it a career and return to civilian life.
BTW, when your DD/DS fills out the Request And Authorization For Midshipmen Accession Travel form, USNA4600/8 (3/2013), found in the Permit to Report package, he/she will enter the Home of Record (City and State Only) which is what the government will pay for your travel to the yard based on. If you can prove otherwise (e.g. a military dependent who wants to claim the same state as the state of legal residence his/her parent claims) you would want to communicate that to admissions. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to change a Home of Record later.
All incoming candidates are authorized to be reimbursed for their travel from their Home of Record to USNA, be driving in a Privately Owned Vehicle, by rail, by bus or by air. You will see the instructions in your Permit to Report package. Save your receipts!
Experts in the forum or those experienced firsthand please chime in. I am not sure if this has been posted anywhere on the forum before.