Camping in 3 states

[whoot]

I plan to use FL as my state of residence, yet I work in NJ. If I camp in 3 states, 4 months each, then none of the states can say I lived there for 6+ months, and cannot claim me as a resident. I'm not sure why the would want to claim me, perhaps for tax reasons, but I think if I am in each for less than 6 months, they can't claim me. Does this sound like a good idea?

[Borrego Dave]

I think you need to be in the home state 6 months + 1 day more than out of state. The folks that winter here in the desert watch the days pretty closely.

[Cathi]

Florida happens to use six months (and a day) to claim you as a resident but many states use no such thing. You have to look at each state. I assume that you know you very likely have to pay taxes to NJ on the money you make there even when a non-resident, and that is the way it is with other states. As a Florida resident, you need to make sure your business dealings are in Florida. The Escapees organization has information on this.

Four months will protect you in many places so that is a good plan but.... It is necessary to check each state where you plan to spend time and what their rules are, including on making money there, as far as making you a resident. Do not assume that because you are not there six months that they cannot claim you as a resident. You can talk to the state tax people and also look on forums that discuss it, both official and unofficial, for a particular state. Tell the tax officials what you plan to do and ask what makes you a resident. You will likely have to go round and round on it but can find out in the end what the situation is with a certain state.

When you make the move of your domicile to Florida by moving all of your business dealings there, you need to file a partial year return in NJ to let them know you have left the state. See a NJ tax accountant to do that and they should be able to give you a little info on it. Your biggest problem is in being able to claim Florida as your domicile while still working in NJ, so you need to check the NJ info the most. I am assuming that you are a resident of NJ by your avatar.

[Bob Miller]

Different states have different criteria for determining residency. But why don't you want to be a resident of a state? You don't seem to have a reason...

[honda03842]

William,

The Escapees focus on Texas Domicile for their members. This will give you some ideas. As Escapee members we have a legal TX address that we could use.

https://escapees.com/8-member-benefits/147-domicile

You may find the following booklet interesting. Here's a clip from the first page.

"If you are blessed with retirement, your home sold, and full-timing, you face a
problem most working people don’t face. Which state is your state of domicile?
(Domicile, in legalese, means the one state you call home.) The good news
is that you may pick from 50 states. The bad news is that you must take the
negative aspects about that state along with the benefits (like getting married).
The marriage analogy is apropos because domicile, like a spouse, is one per
person at a time. Unlike marriage, however, everyone has a domicile, but not
everyone has a spouse.
If you are newly full-timing and in your wallet you can find references to
more than one state, e.g., driver license from state A, vehicle registration from
state B, mailing address in state C, insurance in state D, voter registration in
state E, etc., you have a problem that should be addressed immediately.
Penalties and fines levied by states are so onerous that no one should even
consider attempting to use several states for their individual benefits. The highest
judgment heard about to date: $123,000 plus two years of community service. "

https://escapees.com/images/pdfs/texan.pdf

[honda03842]

Here's a link to the EScapee Forum that also has a lot of info on fulltiming.

Escapees Discussion Forum

[starbrightsteve]

I suspect I am extremely naive. What's the reason for wanting to live in one place yet have a "legal" residence in Texas or wherever? My suspicion....is that this is about money and taxes. I suspect that folks with a significant amount of wealth don't want to give any of it up.
This should be good!

[CandJ]

FL has no state tax...
I think anyone who is retired probably needs to save all they can...

[Casita Greg]

Washington State also doesn't have a state income tax either. However, that being said, it is probably one of the most highly taxed states in all other areas, (such as gas taxes, sales taxes, "sin" taxes etc,) in the union on everything else.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by starbrightsteve

I suspect I am extremely naive. What's the reason for wanting to live in one place yet have a "legal" residence in Texas or wherever? My suspicion....is that this is about money and taxes. I suspect that folks with a significant amount of wealth don't want to give any of it up.
This should be good!

Steve,

My legal residence will be Florida. We are Escapees for the services they provide to us, particularly when we were on the road all the time.. We, like many Escapees, have not been in one state even six months in the last 15 years. Because we had a home in NH we maintained our Domicile in NH, that's about to end.

We appreciate Escapees for the effort and legal work required to establish the TX domicile right for Escapee members. We do use our Escapee address for mail purposes when on the road... they literally have their own post office, even with professional sorting machines. They handle and forward our mail for us as we travel.

I believe the TX domicile address permits the total travelers to use that address in many ways. Since we had a NH address in what amounts to a no tax state , sales or income, for us we never investigated all the possibilities.

Minimizing taxes is a big deal for us, particularly when the other side continually tries to maximize them.

Our second biggest use of Escapees has been their campground system, low cost spotless places by people who have really traveled.

There's our reason.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Casita Greg

Washington State also doesn't have a state income tax either. However, that being said, it is probably one of the most highly taxed states in all other areas, (such as gas taxes, sales taxes, "sin" taxes etc,) in the union on everything else.

Greg,

Our son lives in Bothell, WA so we've spent a lot of time in WA and love the state, particularly a lot of time on The Olympic Peninsula often staying at the Escapee park. We have driven the coast a couple of times. We are always amazed how quickly we can get to quiet once leaving Seattle, one of the busiest travel places on earth.

As to gas prices, we've pretty much abandoned CA, particularly the southern portion (be calm Bob) for travel though we do still manage the more rural northern part. Gas is just too high and... Oregon is jumping on the band wagon with their charge by the mile test. Just imagine where that will head. Actually Oregon and it's cost road is my favorite.

I like your little line from Solzhenitsyn, they've got plenty more to go. I just read where Seattle is giving IUDs to sixth graders, our taxes at work. I guess part of the reason I travel is to escape what I can't fix, after all i am an Escapee. I no longer go wild with what I can't fix, I sit and think of Newfoundland or Washington's Dry Flood or the great Missoula flood. EVen though taxes are high, there's an amazing level of turmoil, I am as happy as a lark on the road, only concerned about my Scamp and Ginny.

I like Alex's saying. More people need to be aware. "WHo is John Galt?"

[Bob Miller]

I'm sure that the IRS, the SSA, your insurance company, your bank and your employer also would want a real address as well, it's part of life in America.


And, working in a specific state will also get you resident status, like it or not.


BTW: Just because a state has an income tax doesn't necessarily mean that a retired person will have to pay much, if any, of that. My total CA state income tax last year was about $3.00 and all of that was an imputed tax for on-line purchases sales tax.


Now, if you are just trying to "Disappear", this really isn't the place to look for that help.

[Casita Greg]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Greg,

Our son lives in Bothell, WA so we've spent a lot of time in WA and love the state, particularly a lot of time on The Olympic Peninsula often staying at the Escapee park. We have driven the coast a couple of times. We are always amazed how quickly we can get to quiet once leaving Seattle, one of the busiest travel places on earth.

As to gas prices, we've pretty much abandoned CA, particularly the southern portion (be calm Bob) for travel though we do still manage the more rural northern part. Gas is just too high and... Oregon is jumping on the band wagon with their charge by the mile test. Just imagine where that will head. Actually Oregon and it's cost road is my favorite.

I like your little line from Solzhenitsyn, they've got plenty more to go. I just read where Seattle is giving IUDs to sixth graders, our taxes at work. I guess part of the reason I travel is to escape what I can't fix, after all i am an Escapee. I no longer go wild with what I can't fix, I sit and think of Newfoundland or Washington's Dry Flood or the great Missoula flood. EVen though taxes are high, there's an amazing level of turmoil, I am as happy as a lark on the road, only concerned about my Scamp and Ginny.

I like Alex's saying. More people need to be aware. "WHo is John Galt?"

Thanks Norm & Ginny,
Although we seem to pay a "premium" for living here, we too really enjoy its natural beauty. Although I may complain about taxes, (but who doesn't?) I still enjoy living there. Now, if we could only get rid of the politicians, but I digress...

[Cathi]

Escapees has a set-up with them for establishing domicile in Florida just as they do in Texas. They are working on South Dakota which they thought they had but had to pull back due to problems.

Those are the three states used by full-timers the most because the paperwork required for driver's licenses and other business dealings can be obtained without a residence at a street address, since full-timers do not have one. No other states are known to allow that. Some full-timers get around that in other states by using a relative's address or in other ways. And, as mentioned, those are three of the states with no state income tax.

[Bob Miller]

Nothing to be excited about. I am not only a California Native, I am also and even rarer San Francisco native and lived in Northern California for 33 yeasr before moving to Washington for a while.


That said, when I was living in Virginia some years later and, when we were offered a position in California, SoCal didn't look near as bad from VA as it had for my years living in the bay area, so here I am...


That said, we will be spending next week at a state beach, enjoying the cool breezes, low humidity and apparent lack of sharks...LOL


B TW: I repeat, low humidity, a phenomenon apparently unknown in many of our central and eastern states, but I will still visit them.


And yes, my six day reservation for the Yosemite Valley in September is still in the hopper, ready to use.

[Denece]

When we cruised we used a popular mail forwarding service ( gosh, remember snail mail?) that also gave us their booklet on how to domicile in FL. That worked out real well for us as far as drivers licenses, boat registration documents, insurances and whatever. Since our income is from pensions, no taxes.
Do people still use mail services these days?


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Cathi]

Originally Posted by Denece

When we cruised we used a popular mail forwarding service ( gosh, remember snail mail?) that also gave us their booklet on how to domicile in FL. That worked out real well for us as far as drivers licenses, boat registration documents, insurances and whatever. Since our income is from pensions, no taxes.
Do people still use mail services these days?


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

Yes, they use mail services. Escapees' mail service is big and well-run from the reports, but there are many smaller ones that people like.

[rbryan]

Having no income tax sounds great, but that's only part of the story. The total tax burden should be compared to other states, and taxes on consumption are a huge part of that. Here in Texas they like to brag about low taxes, but the sales tax places us at about 11th out of 50 states-- quite surprising to most people, and from that perspective it is NOT a low tax state. There are many articles that compare the overall tax burden with other states. Here's one:

http://www.ibtimes.com/united-states...burden-1562376


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Cathi

Yes, they use mail services. Escapees' mail service is big and well-run from the reports, but there are many smaller ones that people like.

Cathi,

I'm not familiar with other mail services but one aspect of Escapee's Mail Services we like is their mail forwarding. Call or email Escapees mail and they almost immediately send your mail where ever you want. We typically use small town post offices we'll be passing through. We've absolutely never had a problem.

Over the years the amount of mail we receive has shrunk dramatically, another positive of the travel lifestyle.

[Mary F]

This is good information to share, as long as folks stick to pertinent facts and don't stray into emotional arguments for/against political jurisdictions' collection and use of taxes.