How we research military tax rules
General education, built from primary government sources. Rules change, and your own facts matter. This is not individualized tax or legal advice.
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We use primary government sources, or we say nothing
Every tax statement we publish restates a specific government source: federal law, Treasury regulations, IRS guidance, or a state's own tax authority and statutes. We do not restate other tax websites, law firm articles, or tax preparation companies. Where we could not find a government source, we leave the point open rather than fill it in.
Which sources outrank which
Where sources disagree, we follow the stronger one: the statute over an agency's summary of it, and the agency's own current guidance over an older publication. For a state question we require that state's authority; a federal rule can add context but never substitutes for it.
What an open question means
An open question means we have not found sufficient primary authority to state that point conclusively. It does not mean the answer is no, and it does not mean the state has no rule. It means we are not willing to tell you something we cannot show you.
What our review status labels mean
"Primary-source review complete" — We have read this state's own tax authority on every point we cover, and each point below either has an answer or expressly does not apply. This describes how complete our reading is. It says nothing about whether the state's rules are good or bad for you. "Primary-source review in progress" — We have read this state's own tax authority on some points and not yet on others. Answered points are shown with their source. Unanswered points are shown as still being reviewed, and you should treat those as unresolved rather than as a no. "Research not yet available" — We have not been able to complete research for this state yet, so we are not showing anything about it. That is a statement about our work, not about the state's rules.
How we date rules
Each state page names the tax year it describes and the date we last read its sources. Where a rule changes in a later tax year, we show each year separately rather than blending them, and we never show a dollar figure without the year it belongs to.
How far our state coverage goes
We cover state income tax treatment. Where a state's authority also establishes a local income tax layer, we say so. We do not look up individual cities, counties or school districts, and where a source only establishes the absence of a local income tax we say that, rather than claiming there are no local taxes.
Who we are not
The Consumer Spot is an independent publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the IRS, the Department of Defense, any branch of the armed forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or any state tax agency. Linking to a government source does not imply any relationship with it.
How we handle corrections
See something that may have changed? Send us the government source and we will re-read it. A correction re-enters the same research process as the original statement: we read the source ourselves before anything on the page changes. We do not change a published statement on the strength of an assertion alone.
Where our reading currently stands
We have read primary authority for 46 states, and 4 states are recorded as research we have not been able to complete. We publish a state page only after the review of that state's own authority is complete.
See something that may have changed? Send us the government source and we will re-read it.