PRIA Logo™
Title 10, Armed ForcesRelease 119-102

§1045 Voluntary Withholding of State Income Tax From Retired or Retainer Pay

Title 10 › Subtitle A — General Military Law › PART II — PERSONNEL › CHAPTER 53 — MISCELLANEOUS RIGHTS AND BENEFITS › § 1045

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary concerned must make an agreement with any State within 120 days after a proper State official asks. Under that deal, the Secretary will withhold State income tax from a person’s monthly retired or retainer pay if the person asks in writing. Money taken in one calendar month is kept and sent to the State the next calendar month. A person can change the State for withholding or stop withholding. Changes or revocations take effect on the first day of the month after the change is processed, but no later than the first day of the second month after the request was received. Only one withholding request can be active at a time, and no more than two can be made in a year. The United States won’t agree to tougher state rules or penalties because of this. The Secretary cannot accept payment from a State for doing the withholding. If money is wrongly sent to a State, the State must return it under the Secretary’s rules. Definitions: State = any State, DC, Puerto Rico, or U.S. territory or possession. Secretary concerned = the military Secretaries and also the HHS Secretary for the PHS corps and the Commerce Secretary for the NOAA corps.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §1045

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary concerned shall enter into an agreement under this section with any State within 120 days of a request for agreement from the proper State official. The agreement shall provide that the Secretary concerned shall withhold State income tax from the monthly retired or retainer pay of any member or former member entitled to such pay who voluntarily requests such withholding in writing. The amounts withheld during any calendar month shall be retained by the Secretary concerned and disbursed to the States during the following calendar month.
(b)A member or former member may request that the State designated for withholding be changed and that the withholdings be remitted in accordance with such change. A member or former member also may revoke any request of such member or former member for withholding. Any request for a change in the State designated and any revocation is effective on the first day of the month after the month in which the request or revocation is processed by the Secretary concerned, but in no event later than on the first day of the second month beginning after the day on which the request or revocation is received by the Secretary concerned.
(c)A member or former member may have in effect at any time only one request for withholding under this section and may not have more than two such requests in effect during any one calendar year.
(d)(1)This section does not give the consent of the United States to the application of a statute that imposes more burdensome requirements on the United States than on employers generally or that subjects the United States or any member or former member entitled to retired or retainer pay to a penalty or liability because of this section.
(2)The Secretary concerned may not accept pay from a State for services performed in withholding State income taxes from retired or retainer pay.
(3)Any amount erroneously withheld from retired or retainer pay and paid to a State by the Secretary concerned shall be repaid by the State in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned.
(e)In this section:
(1)The term “State” means any State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession of the United States.
(2)The term “Secretary concerned” includes the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2006—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–163, in third sentence, substituted “any calendar month” for “any calendar quarter” and “during the following calendar month” for “during the month following that calendar quarter”. 1987—Subsec. (e)(1), (2). Pub. L. 100–26 inserted “The term” after each par. designation.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 1045

Title 10, Armed Forces

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102