Title III — Civil Relief

115th Congress · Approved Dec 31, 2018 · 132 Stat. 5368

TITLE III Civil Relief

SEC. 301. Termination of Leases of Premises of Deceased Servicemembers Who Die While in Military Service.

Section 305(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3955) is amended—

(1)

in the subsection heading, by striking “ by Lessee”;

(2)

in the heading for paragraph (1), by striking “ In general” and inserting “ Termination by lessee”; and

(3)

by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

“(3) Death of lessee.—The spouse of the lessee on a lease described in subsection (b)(1) may terminate the lease during the one-year period beginning on the date of the death of the lessee, if the lessee dies while in military service or while performing full-time National Guard duty, active Guard and Reserve duty, or inactive-duty training (as such terms are defined in section 101(d) of title 10, United States Code).”

SEC. 302. Residence of Spouses of Servicemembers for Tax Purposes.

(a)

Residence for Tax Purposes.— Section 511(a)(2) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 4001(a)(2)) is amended—

(1)

by striking “ A spouse” and inserting the following:

“(A) In general.—A spouse”

; and

(2)

by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

“(B) Election.—For any taxable year of the marriage, the spouse of a servicemember may elect to use the same residence for purposes of taxation as the servicemember regardless of the date on which the marriage of the spouse and the servicemember occurred.”

(b)

Applicability.— The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to any return of State or local income tax filed for any taxable year beginning with the taxable year that includes the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 303. Residence of Spouses of Servicemembers for Voting.

(a)

In General.— Section 705(b) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 4025(b)) is amended—

(1)

by striking “ State or local office” and all that follows through the period at the end of paragraph (3) and inserting “ State or local office—”; and

(2)

by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:

“(1) a person who is absent from a State because the person is accompanying the person’s spouse who is absent from that same State in compliance with military or naval orders shall not, solely by reason of that absence—

“(A) be deemed to have lost a residence or domicile in that State, without regard to whether or not the person intends to return to that State;

“(B) be deemed to have acquired a residence or domicile in any other State; or

“(C) be deemed to have become a resident in or a resident of any other State; and

“(2) the spouse of a servicemember may elect to use the same residence as the servicemember regardless of the date on which the marriage of the spouse and the servicemember occurred.”

(b)

Effective Date.— The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 304. Termination of Multichannel Video Programming and Internet Access Service Contracts.

(a)

In General.— Section 305A of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. 3956) is amended—

(1)

in the section heading, by inserting “ , multichannel video programming, and internet access” after “ telephone”;

(2)

in subsection (b), by striking “ cellular telephone service or telephone exchange service” and inserting “ commercial mobile service, telephone exchange service, internet access service, or multichannel video programming service”;

(3)

in subsection (c), by inserting “ for commercial mobile service or telephone exchange service” before “ terminated”;

(4)

in subsection (d), in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking “ cellular telephone service” and inserting “ commercial mobile service”;

(5)

in subsection (e)—

(A)

by striking “ For any” and inserting the following:

“(1) In general.—For any”

(B)

by striking “ If the” and inserting the following:

“(2) Reinstatement of service.—If the”

; and

(C)

by adding at the end the following:

“(3) Return of provider-owned equipment.—If a servicemember terminates a contract under subsection (a), the servicemember shall return any provider-owned consumer premises equipment to the service provider not later than 10 days after the date on which service is disconnected.”

; and

(6)

in subsection (g)—

(A)

by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (4); and

(B)

by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following:

“(1) The term ‘commercial mobile service’ has the meaning given that term in section 332(d) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d)).

“(2) The term ‘multichannel video programming service’ means a subscription video service offered by a multichannel video programming distributor, as that term is defined in section 602 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522), over a system the distributor owns or controls.

“(3) The term ‘provider-owned consumer premises equipment’ means any equipment that a provider of internet access service or multichannel video programming service rents or loans to a customer during the provision of that service, including gateways, routers, cable modems, voice-capable modems, CableCARDs, converters, digital adapters, remote controls, and any other equipment provided.”

(b)

Clerical Amendments.—

(1)

Title heading.— The heading for title III of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is amended by striking “ TELEPHONE” and inserting “ COMMUNICATIONS”.

(2)

Table of contents.— The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is amended—

(A)

by striking the item relating to title III and inserting the following new item:

“TITLE III— RENT, INSTALLMENT CONTRACTS, MORTGAGES, LIENS, ASSIGNMENT, LEASES, COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE CONTRACTS”;

and

(B)

by striking the item relating to section 305A and inserting the following new item:

“Sec. 305A. Termination of telephone, multichannel video programming, and internet access service contracts.”.

Title III — Civil Relief