Home of Record

Wishful said:
USAFA*2022 said:
Good evening!! Quick question that hopefully someone here might be able to help with. Our DD is c/o 2022 so where will her Home of Record be? Her dad is AD AF and we are currently stationed in FL. Our Home of Record is AZ but we are all AK residents. Her nomination came from an Alaskan MOC. Our DD has a CA driver’s license and she is graduating in FL (after only living here 10 months) so we are unsure if she will have FL as her HoR or if she can choose.
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Ways to establish state residency in FL:
http://www.smith-howard.com/resources/articles/how-establish-florida-residency

Your DD must be sure she has established residency in FL. Then when she reports to the SA from there, FL should be her HoR. Dot those i's & cross those t's. Could save her a lot of $ down the road.
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The issue is, she doesn't want FL to be HOR. She wants to stay an AK resident but we are unsure how it works since we don't currently reside there. We are not from here and only here due to her dads AD status and being assigned here. All of us will be leaving FL this year and have no plans to ever live here again. Unless she gets stationed here. I'm praying we don't have to fly to AK and report from there as we planned on driving to CO from FL but if we have to...
 
I don't think you have to prove you physically left AK & went direct to CO for HOR purposes. (I have this vision of Joseph & a pregnant Mary travelling to Bethlehem for the census, probably one of the first couples to deal with an HOR issue! Wondering if His Resurrection ='s a 3 day break in service?? etc. LOL..)

Naturally, the AFA will enter her HOR from a source, I just don't know which.
Below is the link which shows why FL would better state than AK for retirement purposes: simply AK taxes more income streams than FL. This is why if you can, get her HOR to be FL.

http://rpea.org/retirement-planning/pension-tax-by-state/?id=liqJl8E

Have her call Admissions, explain her families' situation, and ask where they show her HOR. If they show FL, great. If they say we don't know it yet, we'll be informed by XX date, ask for further info as to how she can find out.. Meanwhile (if necessary), try to establish FL as the one.
(Disclaimer: I am Roman Catholic. Just trying to provide some levity.)
 
Wishful said:
I don't think you have to prove you physically left AK & went direct to CO for HOR purposes. (I have this vision of Joseph & a pregnant Mary travelling to Bethlehem for the census, probably one of the first couples to deal with an HOR issue! Wondering if His Resurrection ='s a 3 day break in service?? etc. LOL..)

Naturally, the AFA will enter her HOR from a source, I just don't know which.
Below is the link which shows why FL would better state than AK for retirement purposes: simply AK taxes more income streams than FL. This is why if you can, get her HOR to be FL.

http://rpea.org/retirement-planning/pension-tax-by-state/?id=liqJl8E

Have her call Admissions, explain her families' situation, and ask where they show her HOR. If they show FL, great. If they say we don't know it yet, we'll be informed by XX date, ask for further info as to how she can find out.. Meanwhile (if necessary), try to establish FL as the one.
(Disclaimer: I am Roman Catholic. Just trying to provide some levity.)
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Thanks for the advice Wishful!! Not sure I can sell FL to my kid LOL AK is such an amazing place to live and FL is just... humid ;)
 
Tell her its all about the $$$! She's always AK in her heart...but FL for the 1040!
There's so many of my fellow New Yawker's down there, we call it the 6th borough! Good luck!
 
***UPDATE***

Called USAFA admissions and spoke with DDs regional counselor. I explained the situation and I was told DDs HOR will be where her AD dad is registered to vote... which is AK :)
 
USAFA*2022 said:
***UPDATE***Called USAFA admissions and spoke with DD's regional counselor. I explained the situation and I was told DD's HOR will be where her AD dad is registered to vote... which is AK :)
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An O-1 makes approx. $37K base pay. After maxing IRA Roth contribution of 5.5K, (which she should easily be able to do, numerous prior posts on this) AK State Income tax is approx. $4,600 if I am reading the website's (listed below) calculator correctly.

If HOR is FL, that's $4,600 she would not have to pay in her 1st year, & is $900 short of maxing out her next years IRA; that's just in her first 2 years. Being a Florida resident essentially funds approx. 85% of her Roth IRA & allows her to fund another retirement vehicle. That's being able to invest over 10K while having it feel like only 5.5K!...Per year!! Who can invest approx. 33% of their annual income into retirement while making between 30-40K/year? Your DD may be able to.

Further, say she stays in for 5 years and having to pay no income taxes is a savings of 6K/yr. average, that's 30K (60K retirement invested if you use prior example) savings for doing nothing financially other than having a Florida HOR. 26 years old with 60K+ retirement invested (plus 35K in Career Service Loan paid off, so 30K+ in bank) with no outstanding loans is a good place to be.

Again, I am not a financial or tax person, please research this yourself ; it's worth consulting a professional. To sum up, it appears to me that your DD has the opportunity to pay no state income tax vs. paying one, & none is better as she can use that $ that's going to AK to fund her retirement.

Please consider having Dad register to vote in Florida.

https://smartasset.com/taxes/alaska-tax-calculator#XYVEYnP7is
https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/military-pay-charts.html
 
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Wishful, we are very fortunate as AK residents to also not have state income tax, just like FL. FL is a nice state to visit, just not a forever home for us. It is just a place the AF sent us. And honestly who knows where our daughter will decide home is, she was born into the AF and has only known the military BRAT life.

http://tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/index.aspx?10001

Wishful said:
USAFA*2022 said:
***UPDATE***Called USAFA admissions and spoke with DD's regional counselor. I explained the situation and I was told DD's HOR will be where her AD dad is registered to vote... which is AK :)
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An O-1 makes approx. $37K base pay. After maxing IRA Roth contribution of 5.5K, (which she should easily be able to do, numerous prior posts on this) AK State Income tax is approx. $4,600 if I am reading the website's (listed below) calculator correctly.

If HOR is FL, that's $4,600 she would not have to pay in her 1st year, & is $900 short of maxing out her next years IRA; that's just in her first 2 years. Being a Florida resident essentially funds approx. 85% of her Roth IRA & allows her to fund another retirement vehicle. That's being able to invest over 10K while having it feel like only 5.5K!...Per year!! Who can invest approx. 33% of their annual income into retirement while making between 30-40K/year? Your DD may be able to.

Further, say she stays in for 5 years and having to pay no income taxes is a savings of 6K/yr. average, that's 30K (60K retirement invested if you use prior example) savings for doing nothing financially other than having a Florida HOR. 26 years old with 60K+ retirement invested (plus 35K in Career Service Loan paid off, so 30K+ in bank) with no outstanding loans is a good place to be.

Again, I am not a financial or tax person, please research this yourself ; it's worth consulting a professional. To sum up, it appears to me that your DD has the opportunity to pay no state income tax vs. paying one, & none is better as she can use that $ that's going to AK to fund her retirement.

Please consider having Dad register to vote in Florida.

https://smartasset.com/taxes/alaska-tax-calculator#XYVEYnP7is
https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/military-pay-charts.html
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Glad to hear...Good Luck!
 
Glad you finally got the correct answer! I am an ex-AF personnel officer and I was just coming here to tell you it is where either she (if old enough or registered to vote), or her parents are registered to vote, at time of entrance to active duty. It is basically her state of legal residence at the time she enters the military. It has nothing to do with her physical address at that time. And contrary to what has been said here, HOR does not change from what you initially put on the form when you enter the military, unless, you separate and re-enter military service later. Your state if legal residence can change over and over while in the and out of the military, so if she lists Alaska as HOR, initially Alaska taxes will come out, but she can file a form with IRS and change this any time she changes her state of legal residence, but this does not change Home of Record on file with the military. HOR is mainly only used to determine where the military will pay you to move back to when you separate.
 
http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/forms/NAVPERS/Documents/NAVPERS_1070-74_Rev10-05.pdf
This is the form midshipmen are required to fill out prior to commissioning. When I saw the block to enter HOR, I mistakenly thought it can be changed/“adjusted”.
It led to my assumption:
Zeus said:
The pre-Commissioning paperwork allows the mids to pick.
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falconchic88 said:
HOR does not change from what you initially put on the form when you enter the military, unless, you separate and re-enter military service later.
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Thank you for pointing it out, falconchic. I stand corrected, and my kids did not try to change theirs.
 
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OldRetSWO said:
jaglvr said:
I could be wrong but I think they base it on your driver’s license.
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Not true/necessarily. That may be the first/default that admin will try to use but the individual member gets to weigh in on this as well because of
the many special circumstances like parents on Active Duty, candidate who goes to boarding/prep school in one state but "home" (whatever that means) is in a
different state.
.
I also know military members who use an assignment in a tax friendly state and change "Home of Record" to places like Florida or Texas and actively avoid tax traps like California.
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There is HOR and State of legal residence. I suggest you look up the difference. HOR is from where you entered the military. https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2015/02/27/residence-vs-home-record
 
clearblueskyys said:
OldRetSWO said:
jaglvr said:
I could be wrong but I think they base it on your driver’s license.
Click to expand...
Not true/necessarily. That may be the first/default that admin will try to use but the individual member gets to weigh in on this as well because of
the many special circumstances like parents on Active Duty, candidate who goes to boarding/prep school in one state but "home" (whatever that means) is in a
different state.
.
I also know military members who use an assignment in a tax friendly state and change "Home of Record" to places like Florida or Texas and actively avoid tax traps like California.
Click to expand...
There is HOR and State of legal residence. I suggest you look up the difference. HOR is from where you entered the military. https://www.military.com/paycheck-chronicles/2015/02/27/residence-vs-home-record
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Thank you for the reference/lesson. However, in my 31 years of service and direct family experience, I have seen this change for a number of reasons. And to my first point, I can asssuer you that I know people whose Home of Record was not the same as where their Driver's License was issued from.
 
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