Residency

[TCrawf5825]

    I worked in Washington State until 19 June.  I have recently retired and currently have my unit in San Diego.  I intend to stay here and go to school while drawing my GI Bill (federal), Military Retirement and Illinois teachers retirement.  I wish to remain a resident of Washington and can use my cousins address.  I currently have Washington drivers license and plates as well as have just requested an absentee ballot. 
    I get my mail sent to a Box in San Diego but am thinking I should get my cell bill and dish bill sent to my cousins home.  I have a local Dentist but do my Doctor on the Naval Base.  While school is not in session I plan to travel. I applied for teachers cert as a non-resident.  Since school is at night I am wondering if I was to substitute teach if I run the risk of California trying to make me a resident.  I figure they will probably tax my sub teaching pay but I don't want them taxing my other income.

Any Thoughts or Insight ?

Thanks 

 

[Lou Schneider]

Welcome to The RV Forum!

I'm a California resident and as far as I know California lays claim to all of your income if you work in state, regardless if it comes from CA or elsewhere.  When you fill out the CA state tax form you copy the adjusted gross income from your federal tax form, which includes all of your taxable income. This was originally intended as a way to simplify filing state taxes but had the effect of taxing all of your income, regardless of if it comes from within CA or from out of state.

If you're only in state part of the year you can claim part year residency but that just pro-rates the tax for the percentage of the year you're in CA.

You should contact an in-state CPA or tax attorney and discuss your plans with them.  Other factors can also come into play including vehicle registration and drivers license and you'll have to disprove the default assumption that you became a CA resident when you started working here.  Attending school under the lower residential tuition can also trigger state residency.

CA is very aggressive in pursuing what they think is their money and you don't want to get on the wrong side.

 

[Rene T]

I know in NH, if you're living in the state more than 30 days, you have to register your vehicle and change your license. Also if I worked in the state of ME for more than 30 days I believe, I have to pay ME state income tax.

 

[beaverfever]

you don't need arm chair accountants and lawyers you need professional advise. as this will hit your pocket book mighty heavy if you are wrong. all it takes is one neighbor to turn you in.California wants every penny they can get and Washington is not far behind

 

[Tom]

I believe that CA currently uses the number of days in state to determine residency and calculate taxes. Stay out of CA for at least half the year (not necessarily contiguous).

Rene makes a good suggestion about consulting with a professional CPA. OTOH I recently did this with our part-year place in OH. I researched it first, then sat down with a pro CPA. She had no clue, and I had to show her the respective rules online. The bottom line was we need to stay out of OH for at least 183 days a year, and not earn any income in OH.

 

[Rene T]

Rene makes a good suggestion about consulting with a professional CPA. .

I'd like to take the credit Tom but I can't.  Credit belongs to  beaverfever.  :-[ :-X :'(

 

[Tom]

OK Rene, don't  ;D

 

[grashley]

I'm confused!  (easy to do!)

You retired in WA.  Your camper is in CA.  You intend to stay here.  WHERE IS HERE?

If you live and work in CA, does this not make you a CA resident?
If you live and work in WA, does this not make you a WA resident?

Both states expect their residents to pay income tax, have their state driver license, etc all in their state.  If you vacation a couple months out of state, that does not change residency!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

If you vacation a couple months out of state, that does not change residency!

True enough, but if you enroll in a school and live nearby while attending, and/or work in the state, you are not vacationing. State residency laws don't cope well with a situation where a person has roots in two places or lives part time in one place and the rest in another.  The laws were all created back in the day when the population was far less mobile (and I don't mean just RVers). They are also motivated a lot by tax & usage fee considerations.

 

[cadee2c]

I believe in  Washington, you have to maintain a physical address in Washington to be considered a resident there. Your drivers license has to have a real address, it cannot be sent to a PO box. Not even one in Washington state. They like to know where to find you if they need you.

 

[docj]

True enough, but if you enroll in a school and live nearby while attending, and/or work in the state, you are not vacationing.

I think being a student and working are two very different things.  I don't believe college students automatically become residents of the state they go to school in but I am aware that they may elect to do so in order to vote.

OTOH, seeking employment is an automatic trigger for residency in most, if not all states.

Here's one to consider.  A snow bird couple own a home somewhere in the north and drive south each winter to TX where they own an RV site. They tow their 5th wheel with a truck registered in SD as is the trailer, itself.  However, they also own a car that they leave all year on their TX property.  What state should the car be registered in?

My quick answer to this is that the car should be registered in TX because that's where it spends its time.  However, I don't know what happens when you go to the motor vehicles folks with a license from another state and want to register a car in their state.  I know that rich people with multiple homes and vehicles must do this, but I'm not sure if there are some special wrinkles.  The insurance, of course, has to be appropriate for the state the vehicle is garaged in.

Thoughts?

 

[LariatAdvance]

Here it is from someone who has traveled quite a bit and whose tried all the "loopholes"  LOL

What most of you are talking about is a DOMICILIARY.  You can only be a RESIDENT of one state at a time.  You can DOMICILE in as many states as you want to.
Just because you live in a state "X" number of days per year does not make you a RESIDENT of that state.  What the law says, is after you have RESIDED in a state for "X" number of days (not domiciled), you are required to license your vehicle, etc. in that state.  And being a full time student in no way makes you a resident of a state.  That's why out-of-state tuition is higher than in-state tuition.  Now NC says after my yacht has been "present in the state" more than 90 days (even if it's registered and numbered in another state), I have to pay NC property tax on it, even if I'm not a resident of NC.  So what sucks is that my yacht is registered in New York and taxed by New York State, and then it's taxed again by North Carolina.  The county actually has a guy that rides all the marina's recording registration numbers so they can know if you have been vacationing here more than 90 days.

You can only hold a (valid) drivers license in ONE STATE at a time, and under the Patriot Act, you have to be a RESIDENT of a state to hold a drivers license in that state.  Now if you own a house in New York and you own a house in Florida, and you have a DL from New York, you are a legal RESIDENT of New York.  When you drive down to your house in Florida for the winter to snowbird for 7 months, you are a DOMICILIARY of Florida, not a RESIDENT.

Now whether Cali is gonna tax you for income earned in that state, I'm not educated enough to know.  You need to speak with an accountant.

Years ago, truck drivers would go around and get several drivers licenses in different states.  Then when they got too many tickets on one license and it got suspended, they would drive under one of the others.  That all ended with the Patriot Act.  When you hold a drivers license in, say Nevada, and you go to North Carolina and get a drivers license, NC updates the federal database and Nevada will know within a few days that you are no longer a resident of Nevada.  Even if you don't mail that Nevada license back to Nevada as the DMV tells you to, and the expiration date on that NV license is still 2 yrs from now, Nevada DMV will cancel the license when they are notified by NC that you have ended your residency in Nevada by becoming a resident of NC. 

I had a fellow who held a NV drivers license but owned a home in Pahrump, Nevada.  He moved to NC and bought a home in NC and rented out his home in NV.  He got a NC driver license.  He still held his NV driver license because his insurance for his 3 vehicles was with Countrywide Insurance and his three vehicles were registered in V and had NV plates on them.  However Countrywide Insurance isn't authorized to write insurance in NC, and since he now held a NC driver license, he was a resident of NC, not NV.  So when he got in a wreck, his claim was denied and he got fined by NC for not having liability insurance on his vehicles and he got sued by the people he hit for their medical bills that Countrywide couldn't pay.  Countrywide denied his claim because he was a RESIDENT of NC.  His home in NV became a DOMICILE when he relinquished his NV residency by becoming a NC RESIDENT.

And current case law supports the idea that "The person chooses the state, the state doesn't choose it's citizens".    So Cali isn't going to "automatically" make you a citizen just because you work there.  But they may tax income of non-residents.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Call it what you like, the state will generally insist that you pay taxes if you meet any of several criteria, e.g. "residing" there, working there, enrolling children in a school there, etc. Each states has its own laws regarding who must pay taxes, register vehicles, get driver licenses, etc., but most of them are similar in their overall effect.  Becoming legally "domiciled" or "resident" in another state does not relieve you of the tax burden if you meet the other state's criteria.

 

[LariatAdvance]

I think being a student and working are two very different things.  I don't believe college students automatically become residents of the state they go to school in but I am aware that they may elect to do so in order to vote.

  Out-of-state tuition.  You can go to Harvard for 4 years and still be a resident of NC.  You will pay higher tuition.  You can claim that you are a resident of Mass. in order to get the lower tuition rate, but you'll have to show proof.  Else everyone would just claim thaey are a 4-year resident of Mass.

OTOH, seeking employment is an automatic trigger for residency in most, if not all states.

Not so.  You can work in as many states as you want.  You may or may not have to pay taxes on that income in those states.  Otherwise people who travel for employment would be changing their residency and drivers license ever few months.  My last job was a IT support for WalMart.  I've been to 26 different states to work for WalMart. I remained a resident of NC the entire time.

Here's one to consider.  A snow bird couple own a home somewhere in the north and drive south each winter to TX where they own an RV site. They tow their 5th wheel with a truck registered in SD as is the trailer, itself.  However, they also own a car that they leave all year on their TX property.  What state should the car be registered in?

The state that they hold a drivers license in and thus, are a resident of.  Most states will not allow you to register a vehicle if you don't hold a drivers license from that state.  One exemption is active duty military.  That is because although I am stationed a For Benning, GA, I am a legal resident of NC.  My friend Perrie owns a home in Jacksonville Florida.  He and his wife are legal residents of Florida.  They also own a condo in Morehead City, NC.  They stay here 5 months out of the year.  Thir status is they are residents of Florida and domicile in NC.  They do not have to have NC license plates or registrations on their vehicles because they can't.  They have to be residents of NC to license a vehicle here.  They are legal in NC as long as their license/registration is valid in Florida.

My quick answer to this is that the car should be registered in TX because that's where it spends its time. 

"You have 30 days after establishing residency to have your vehicle inspected and registered. "  ~Texas DMV

Notice that says after *establishing residency*, not just being there in the state.  If you simply domicile in Texas, and your "from a state up north" registration/license is valid, you are legal in TX.  You cannot register a vehicle or get a TX license until you become a resident of Texas.

True Story.  I was in TX for 4 months bodyguard job.  Driving on a NC license with NC tags, NC registration, NC resident.  Got pulled over by a cop in Houston.  He was adamant that I was supposed to have a TX license and registration.  He wrote me several tickets for every damned thing he could find.  Invalid tags/invalid registration/invalid license/tread on tires unsafe/invalid state inspection sticker.  He was just p'd off because I was carrying a pistol in my job duties and was licensed as a bodyguard in TX but not a resident of TX.  The tickets totaled $780 when he got thru.  End of story.  All tickets dismissed.  I did not have to have tags/registration/license from TX unless I was a *resident* of Texas.  Domiciling in the state for 4 months and working in the state for 4 months did not make me a resident, or so the judge said.

The officers incorrect reasoning was that since my Bodyguard license issued by the TX State Board of Private Investigators was issued a year earlier, then I MUST HAVE been a resident of the state of Texas for at least the last year (and therefore should have held a TX registration/tags/license).  But see, the whole time I was stationed at Fort Hood I was a legal resident of NC.  Active duty military don't change their State of Residency every time they move to a new duty station.  I remained a legal resident of NC stationed in Killeen, TX.  Therefore my valid NC license/tags/registration/inspection sticker was valid in TX under intrastate agreement.

 

[LariatAdvance]

Call it what you like, the state will generally insist that you pay taxes if you meet any of several criteria, e.g. "residing" there, working there, enrolling children in a school there, etc. Each states has its own laws regarding who must pay taxes, register vehicles, get driver licenses, etc., but most of them are similar in their overall effect.  Becoming legally "domiciled" or "resident" in another state does not relieve you of the tax burden if you meet the other state's criteria.

That's what I said.  Some states tax non-residents.

 

[Tom]

This subject is a hornet's nest, but can be an even bigger headache for folks from other countries. It's one reason, in addition to the legalities of working in the USA, I warn wannabes who want to "live and work in the US while RVing the country".

When we first came to California on assignment from the UK, although "employed" in the UK, we were liable for Federal, California, and UK taxes. Things got worse when we subsequently "transferred" employment to CA and purchased a home. Lots of letters to the UK tax authorities eventually resulted in a refund, which we promptly reported to the IRS (re-filed prior returns) and enclosed a check.

That's when things got a lot worse; "You owe us taxes, interest, penalties, interest on interest, interest on penalties, etc ...", none of which was true.

It took several years and lots of letters, threats by the IRS that they were about to seize property, and involvement/intervention by a CPA (sitting in an IRS office), before it got straightened out. Eventually, the IRS agreed we didn't owe them anything.

Meanwhile, visitors should read IRS rules about a sailing permit which requires verification that taxes have been paid before you're officially allowed to return home (* note). I haven't read these rules in well over 30 years, so I'm not up to date.

* Note: Since the US doesn't have the equivalent of "passport control" when you leave the country, there's nothing that physically stops you leaving. But, presumably, they could catch up with you the next time you enter the US.
Edit: Added note for clarification.

 

[jimpaar]

I was born and raised in California, I left there because of the high taxes. I now live on Florida. The beaches are far better and love the weather.


Here is something I found on Florida.

Advantages of becoming a Florida Resident and the Perks
There are obvious advantages to becoming a Florida resident. The first, and most well-known, is?Florida has no state income tax.
Full-time RV living in Florida has become a lifestyle choice for increasing numbers of modern-day nomads and Florida is a popular destination. Improvements in RV amenities and the scarcity of affordable housing are a few of the reasons that some people take their home to the open road permanently. Since home-schooling options have become more widely available, even families with young children can be full-time RV residents. Improvements in technology have made it possible for full-time RV residents to telecommute, pay bills, and stay in touch with friends and family while on the road.
How do you become a Florida Resident?
A lot of identity verification rules have been put in place since we hit the road, adding some additional hoops to getting a driver?s license in any state. Which means you need to start your process a month or so before getting your driver?s license to make sure you have everything you need.
Here?s the steps we recommend after going through the process ourselves:
 Get quotes for your health and auto insurance and check into registration fees, so there will be no surprises.
 Establish your new domicile address at least a month before you anticipate applying for your driver?s license or ID card. Do your research as to which is best for you ? rates for insurance (vehicle & health) can vary widely at different zip codes. Vehicle insurance rates are very reasonable in Okaloosa County.
 I recommend Good Sam Mail Service https://www.goodsammailservice.com/in Florida. They?ve been in business for many years serving the cruising, RVing and traveler communities, and we?ve heard nothing but glowing recommendations. They were easy to work with, sign-up was handled all online, and they provided all of the forms and instructions. They quickly answered our questions, including verifying that you could use our new address for our businesses without needing any additional occupancy license. Very impressed with their high tech scanning solution that actually lets you see the outside of incoming mail as soon as it arrives, and for a small extra fee they will even open your mail and scan the contents on request!
 As with any mail forwarding service, you?ll need to fill out a Postal Form 1583 to authorize the service to forward mail to you. The form must be notarized, and you must send copies of 2 forms of identification for each person along with it.
 Make sure your SSN card shows your name exactly as you want it to appear on your license.
 Start changing your address with banks, credit cards and insurance companies.

Why Florida over other states?
- Very little red tape in Florida making it an easy transition.
- Some of the most beautiful RV Resorts in the country.
- The obvious, no state income tax.
- Driver?s license is good for 8 years plus it?s easy to renew online wherever you?re at.
- No annual vehicle inspections like Texas. This is big because you have to move your RV to the inspection station every year.
- In Florida you only need a Class E driver?s license for any size RV. In some states you?ll need a special non-commercial Class A or B driver?s license.
- Florida is highly regarded by a few RV Club?s for mail forwarding ? Florida has far more resources for mail forwarding. 
- No pension tax in Florida
- No astronomical fees for vehicle registration, Florida is very reasonable.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

That's what I said.  Some states tax non-residents.

Indeed you did, but I was giving a subtly different perspective. I am saying that resident vs non-resident isn't even a factor. State tax laws will define who pays taxes and fees and the criteria for that. In fact, they usually start out saying "everybody pays" and then grant a few exceptions. People get all tangled up in the "residency" and "domicile" thing, but those legal terms are rarely relevant as far as paying state taxes is concerned. A "non-resident" may have to file a different tax form or may get credit for time or taxes in some other jurisdiction, but they still owe the state level taxes.