640.2 Legal Residence When Military Personnel is Domiciled in a Foreign Country.

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act protects the rights of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, restricting the servicemember’s liability for state income tax to his or her state of domicile. Domicile is defined legally as ‘‘that place where a man has his true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment and to which, whenever he is absent therefrom, he has the intention of returning’’. A residence, on the other hand, generally is defined as a ‘‘factual place of abode’’ at a particular time. A member of the armed forces who entered military service while domiciled in this state will be presumed to be a resident of South Carolina, for tax purposes, unless the servicemember submits evidence that he or she has established legal residence in another state and abandoned domicile in this state.