Question Changing Domicile/Residency to Florida. Who's done it?

[Chargerman]

The new state doesn’t care if you spend a day there if you are paying taxes. The issue is the state you are claiming to leave. They will want their tax money if you give them an opportunity to get it. Not nearly as much of an issue if you are retired but as I mentioned earlier, if you are working for a business that is in the state you left they “may” come
Looking.

 

[Neal]

Another thing that has to be considered is "where are your doctors?" In my case obviously here in VA. And I know some fulltimers have doctors in a location that is not their domicile, and that's fine. I guess the potential gotcha in VA is if I need to be home for an extended period of time for medical reasons and can't get away for six months. The question is whether VA is really going to spend time to track you down. Per chatGPT when you put as many eggs in the domicile basket such as Driver's license, Voter registration, Addresses with IRS, bank accounts, vehicle registrations, FL address, FL declaration of domicile...i.e. if you do all you're supposed to do, you should be safe. I had quite the conversation with chatGPT on this and if it knew of any cases where people were tried for this and it couldn't find anything. You either legitimately make the changes and go all in and do it right, or you only try to do something to get around the IRS for example, then you have a problem. chatGPT mentioned if this was a problem SBI wouldn't be doing it for as long as they have. It's done by RVers, Mariners, Airline pilots, on and on. It's a system that's been ironed out and I'm planning on doing it and maybe it will force me out of this house! I plan to continue to own this home until further notice but I've traveled more than 6 months a year most years I've owned my RV until recently.

 

[Underboss]

Florida does not care if you are here ten days or 365, you are not paying income tax here. They do care if you buy property and try to claim it as your main residence for property tax purposes while doing the same in another state.
If you change all to FL and still own property in another "income tax" state, you will have to file state income tax there. Mainly just because you own real estate there. You can claim your income in Florida or a percentage there of in both states.

 

[Neal]

If you change all to FL and still own property in another "income tax" state, you will have to file state income tax there. Mainly just because you own real estate there. You can claim your income in Florida or a percentage there of in both states.

I do not believe this is correct.

 

[Underboss]

I do not believe this is correct.

Well, its not like I have never been wrong before.................... My CPA filed as I was paying property tax in two states. One was Florida so that was not an issue, the other was North Carolina. The attorney at closing replied, when asked at closing, that I would need to. It is state dependent as all states are different, it also depends how many days a year you spend there, if its a rental, a vacation property.
Either way, I file and it cost me nothing, so my bases were covered. A good CPA will advise you on that. I always cover my bases.

 

[Neal]

You said income tax. I realized you meant property tax.

 

[Neal]

Well, it's been an interesting morning. While this makes me uncomfortable with "change" knowing my home, my address, how to do everything related to my business, everything just in place as it has been for a long time, sometimes change is good, vulnerability leads to good things, but it's on hold.

I had a call with SBI yesterday and a few questions this morning so they called me to ensure I had the right order of events and priorities. The first item on deck is getting RV and toad insurance policies to the Florida address. <insert detonation sounds here>

I emailed my insurance broker, gave him the SBI address, told him I'm changing my domicile to FL and need a policy. I intend to keep my house in VA, not sure why that mattered but it could have been the big misstep but truth is important to minimize risk later. He says he can't get me a policy for a mailbox. I don't live there, underwriters are requiring you are in FL for 3 months out of the year, every year. There are limited providers to get insurance in FL now, Progressive and Nat'l General are his primary two. He won't issue a policy that doesn't meet the requirements and it's setting myself up for problems for when there is a claim and the assessor who's main responsibility is to find ways NOT to grant your claim, will find that you're not actually living where your policy is written, etc. etc. I'm not a fulltimer and he said fulltimers don't have a house they go back to for any length of time during the year.

It all just turned into a furball and something I'm simply not ready for. Already having to commit to being away for 6 months each year to ensure I'm not in VA for 183 days or more is an obligation I'm not ready for. I think it's not the right time for this, for me. I will travel next year as I've done in the past and see how things go, figure out if it's time to sell the house, is it time to transition to fulltiming, and just let things fall into place with a lot of recent change and decisions to be made.

One of my conversations with chatGPT, my therapist, is I don't want to find myself 5 years down the road and not having changed a single thing. While for some that's not a bad thing, I need change and have to figure out what change I want at some point hopefully in the next year.

It's been educational to say the least. It's just too far out of my comfort zone for right now.