Any Full-timers With a Washington Domicile, No Sticks & Bricks... Speak to Me

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Gizmo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Posts
1,786
Location
Bellingham,WA
We have been full-timing for 3-years, sold our home before doing so, set-up our domicile in SD and traveled since.  It was easy to do and it has worked well, however because of personal preferences and logistical reasons we are considering "moving" to WA.  Interested to hear experiences setting up a domicile in WA, suggestions for mail forward/domicile services in WA.  As it seems to be a bit more of a challenge than SD, we stopped in to a DMV to inquire about getting a drivers license, a typical first step.  What we were told is DMV will not accept an address involving a mail forwarding service, but the woman went on to say, once established they do not care what your address is. So we were thinking, if we do decide to "move" stay at a RV park for a month or two, use that as our address, then after establishing service with a mail forward service change our address.  Thanks
 
Not responsive to your particular questions, but note that Washington while not having an income tax does have an estate tax.  That doesn't matter when the first spouse dies, but after that or if both die at the same time it can lead to non-optimal results.
 
Yes we are aware, should not be a big impact for us, but still researching this.  Thank you for your input.
 
Goodspike said:
Not responsive to your particular questions, but note that Washington while not having an income tax does have an estate tax.  That doesn't matter when the first spouse dies, but after that or if both die at the same time it can lead to non-optimal results.

I believe you are mistaken about the estate tax.
There is talk about instituting an estate tax, but technically an estate tax is an income tax,and not allowed under the Washington state constitution.
 
Gizmo said:
We have been full-timing for 3-years, sold our home before doing so, set-up our domicile in SD and traveled since.  It was easy to do and it has worked well, however because of personal preferences and logistical reasons we are considering "moving" to WA.  Interested to hear experiences setting up a domicile in WA, suggestions for mail forward/domicile services in WA.  As it seems to be a bit more of a challenge than SD, we stopped in to a DMV to inquire about getting a drivers license, a typical first step.  What we were told is DMV will not accept an address involving a mail forwarding service, but the woman went on to say, once established they do not care what your address is. So we were thinking, if we do decide to "move" stay at a RV park for a month or two, use that as our address, then after establishing service with a mail forward service change our address.  Thanks

I read about one person that rented a po box,then used the street address of the post office and use unit number rather than po box number.
Once established, you could then instruct the post office to forward your mail.
 
Thank you for your reply.  I guess then if that works, we could establish a local mail forward service as well and substitute unit or apt #for PMB number.  There seems to be some conflicting information here, the DMV website implies one needs documentation of living at the address you provide, while upon calling the DMV info line and indicating we live in a RV, they say no documentation required other than the drivers license from our current state or a passport.  They say all we need to do is to give the address of the RV park where we are staying which by the way makes us neighbors as we are in Ferndale, WA as well.
 
Escapees has a co-op park near Port Townsend (Chimicum).  Co-op membership is restricted to the number of lots in the park, and if you buy a share you get exclusive year-around use of a site.  Being a co-op member lets you use the park as a domicile address for mail, voting, drivers license, etc. and you can stay there year around or come and go as you want.  There's currently a waiting list for new spots.

https://www.cohoskp.com/

It's been a few years since I've been a WA resident but I think the biggest problem with using an RV park as an domicile address is the state and/or county has length of stay restrictions on most parks.  Most can't let you stay in the park more than X days a year, even if you have a dedicated site, and this precludes using them as a domicile.
 
Gizmo said:
Thank you for your reply.  I guess then if that works, we could establish a local mail forward service as well and substitute unit or apt #for PMB number.  There seems to be some conflicting information here, the DMV website implies one needs documentation of living at the address you provide, while upon calling the DMV info line and indicating we live in a RV, they say no documentation required other than the drivers license from our current state or a passport.  They say all we need to do is to give the address of the RV park where we are staying which by the way makes us neighbors as we are in Ferndale, WA as well.

Hey Neighbor, If you are in an RV park in Ferndale,you must be at the Cedars? I'm only about 1 1/2 miles from there. I usually get my propane bottles filled there or just down the street at Portal Way Farm & Garden.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Escapees has a co-op park near Port Townsend (Chimicum).  Co-op membership is restricted to the number of lots in the park, and if you buy a share you get exclusive year-around use of a site.  Being a co-op member lets you use the park as a domicile address for mail, voting, drivers license, etc. and you can stay there year around or come and go as you want.  There's currently a waiting list for new spots.

https://www.cohoskp.com/

It's been a few years since I've been a WA resident but I think the biggest problem with using an RV park as an domicile address is the state and/or county has length of stay restrictions on most parks.  Most can't let you stay in the park more than X days a year, even if you have a dedicated site, and this precludes using them as a domicile.

Thank you, worth looking into.  If we were to use the RV Park as an address, it would only be until we obtained our licenses, then would change the address to a mail forwarding service.  The immediate issue we have come to find is, because of the COVID, one has to make an appointment to go to the office for drivers license and so far there are no appointments to be had.  Uggh!

Jeff in Ferndale Wa said:
Hey Neighbor, If you are in an RV park in Ferndale,you must be at the Cedars? I'm only about 1 1/2 miles from there. I usually get my propane bottles filled there or just down the street at Portal Way Farm & Garden.

Indeed we are at the Cedars, our third time.  We have been getting our propane at the Portal Way Farm & Garden, much less expensive their.
 
I believe you are mistaken about the estate tax.
There is talk about instituting an estate tax, but technically an estate tax is an income tax,and not allowed under the Washington state constitution.
The Washington Department of Revenue disagrees. Here's its website on the estate tax:
https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/other-taxes/deaths-or-after-january-1-2014

The threshold for having to pay it is over $2,000,000, so it won't apply to most people, but it sure looks like it does exist.

There's talk about instituting a capital gains tax in Washington. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?
 
How about using something like a UPS mailbox. Ours is a physical address with Suite no. You'd need to check if that was acceptable.
 
The Washington Department of Revenue disagrees. Here's its website on the estate tax:
https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/other-taxes/deaths-or-after-january-1-2014

The threshold for having to pay it is over $2,000,000, so it won't apply to most people, but it sure looks like it does exist.

There's talk about instituting a capital gains tax in Washington. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?


I stand corrected. It is the proposed capital gains tax I was thinking of.
 
I used a friend's address in Washington for several years, and then when my son bought a house I started using his address. Do you know anyone in Washington state that would be willing to let you do the same?

As far as mail forwarding, I do everything I can online, so there's very little mail that I need to actually get into my hands. If I find out there's an important piece of mail, I just ask to have a picture taken and emailed to me. Last one I needed was a jury summons.
 
We do not have family in WA we can use. Since posting my original query, we have made appointments with the DMV to get our licenses. We have been staying at a RV Park which has provided us with an invoice of monthly rent and electricity for our entire stay thus far and have a cell and satellite bill mailed to us at this RV Park, so I believe we are set to use the RV Park as our address, which we will change to a mail forwarding service address sometime after receiving licenses and before we leave the park.
 
Just another caution. There are fundamentally two tests for residency. Bona Fide residence test and physical presence test.

Bona Fides - Basically means paperwork. Licenses, vehicle registrations, registered to vote etc...

Physical presence - Did you spend the requisite time physically present in the state or (more importantly) out of the last state.

It is getting "easier" to track where people are than in the past. If a state wanted to they could likely ask for bank records (ATM and CC data) to track where you've been spending your time.

If one is establishing residency in a no tax state but spends all their time in the original state a path exists pretty readily to get caught.

It is perfectly normal for citizens to have more than one residence, more than one bank account in more than one state etc. But the states that tax do love to claim as many people as possible. This issue has been further highlighted to the states by the huge migration to work from home. Several of these issues are already winding their way through state courts - California is a good example where gig workers figured out they can live anywhere, yet Silicon Valley still wants to claim them...

Be smart, be careful and be "sincere" - tax dodging for tax dodging's sake is not a great long term strategy IMO...
 
Yes I get that and your reply has merits. In our case I am not sure WA is the best choice for tax reasons, so we are not trying to dodge paying taxes, rather a personal choice and for logistical reasons. We have been in the state for over a year now and plan to make it "home", our base and spending most of our time here.
 
Hi there - @Gizmo

I'm curious if your strategy worked out? We're planning on going full-time next year and would like move change our residency to Washington state from Oregon as we intend to spend much of our time there. Were you able to get your driver's license and other necessary documents with an RV park address and then change the address later to a mail forwarding address? Thanks in advance for any advice/feedback.
 
Thank you, worth looking into. If we were to use the RV Park as an address, it would only be until we obtained our licenses, then would change the address to a mail forwarding service. The immediate issue we have come to find is, because of the COVID, one has to make an appointment to go to the office for drivers license and so far there are no appointments to be had. Uggh!



Indeed we are at the Cedars, our third time. We have been getting our propane at the Portal Way Farm & Garden, much less expensive their.
I left WA in 2005 following my divorce. The Escapees park wasn't immediately available as an address, mail service to the park is only for people who buy into the co-op and they have a several years long waiting list.

At that time WA DMV told me I couldn't renew my drivers license without having a physical address in state and when I went to the Jefferson County Assessor's office to re-register my vehicles I was told I could not do that without having an actual physical address in the county. Seattle and King County have annual smog inspections, Jefferson County doesn't and too many people were trying to game the system. IIRC the penalties for falsifying residency information were quite severe so I wound up moving my driver's license and vehicle registrations to another state.
 
We were faced with this when we sold our house in MA and were living in our rv at a NH campground.

They required a physical domicile address. We got a letter from a friend who lives in NH giving us permission to use his address. We took the letter to the town hall along with old registrations and vehicle titles and were able to register them in NH and apply to transfer the titles.
Next we took the letter and our MA drivers licenses to the DMV and got temporary drivers licenses with real ones to follow in a month.
Done - now NH residents .
 
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