New Mexico as Full Time Residence

New Mexico works great for us - we own a house in Santa Fe. Taxes are mitigated for us because DH is 100# disabled American Veteran. Property taxes are waved for 100%DAV in New Mexico. 100%DAV also get a free fishing/hunting license, discounted yearly camping pass, State Park entry pass. Our utilities are very very reasonable as we bought a new home with lots of Green features - our October electric and gas combined was $75.

So for us, this is a great state for homebase. It depends on your circumstances.

As a native New Mexican with most of my family still there, I would love to domicile in NM when we go full-time in 2015. However, despite what Kiplinger says, NM is not the best tax or cost of living situation for retirees. Having researched the topic extensively (and joined Escapees), we plan to domicile in Texas and spend lots of time in New Mexico. Escapees provides lots of support services - including a mail service with a physical address - and Texas is one of the three best states for taxes, vehicle fees, etc.

Here's the link to Kiplinger's retirement map:

Kiplinger's retirement tool

Rob

Something to consider:
TX will give you a jury duty deferral. SD will remove you from the jury rolls if you tell them you are a full timer. Both make it easy to vote using the Escapee mail forwarding address or your SD mail forwarding service address.

We use Tennessee as our Domicile. It works well for us. For one thing there is no State Income Tax.

You may have a specific reason for choosing New Mexico as your domicile but it's not one of the popular ones. Texas and Florida are at the top. South Dakota is one, also, but only if you're on Medicare. If you're younger and need to purchase your insurance, South Dakota is not the one for you. You need insurance that you can travel with and get care wherever you go. South Dakota doesn't have such plans. Read some of the posts on that topic within this forum.

What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. You're going to have to do some research to find out what is best for you.

Keep in mind that whatever state you choose doesn't mean you have to buy property there now, while full-timing. Also, I'd recommend spending time touring this wonderful country of ours before making such a purchase. Your feelings might change. Ours certainly did! :)

A person I know of, who full-times solo, has Texas as his domicile, but spends much of his time in the state parks of New Mexico. It's a relatively easy drive for him to go to Texas when necessary.

PenMan wrote:
If I didn't live in New Mexico I would definitely look at other states if I were going to full-time RV. Taxes are high here. I love the location and the people but would prefer a state without state income tax if/when I full-time. Just curious, why would you prefer NM to Colorado as your home state?

I would guess, based on conversations with my brother-in-law, that the reason they don't want to register in CO is due to high tag fees. He has a large new Class A and he pays a ton of money for his registration.

The state income tax thing is what will get you. That was one of the reasons we did not change from our home state (Illinois). They have a state income tax but it does not apply to retirement income. Don't know what RV plates are for a MH in Illinois, but I just renewed my 5th wheels plates and they were $50.00.

I wonder if New Mexico's state income tax applies to all income or not?

I spend part of each winter in southern NM as I travel the west. But I'd never consider it for domicile due to their state income tax. I've also been told that to get a NM DL you must prove you actually live in the state, with rent receipts or property tax bill, & utility receipts, etc
I don't know of any RV specialty mail forwarders in NM, just generic UPS stores.
Plenty of fulltimers passing thru, visiting or camping in NM, but not many who want to domicile here, so no companies here to serve them.
I guess if you have no income to worry about being taxed, and you have a close friend or family to use as a NM address, you could make it work. But when a state doesn't openly welcome & acknowledge fulltimers, or have a history of dealing with large groups of them, it tends to create ongoing conflicts with every bureaucrat you have to deal with.

If I didn't live in New Mexico I would definitely look at other states if I were going to full-time RV. Taxes are high here. I love the location and the people but would prefer a state without state income tax if/when I full-time. Just curious, why would you prefer NM to Colorado as your home state?

I just moved from New Mexico. You need a letter on your license (do not remember which one but they will know) but there was no test or extra fees. It was actually pretty dumb. You just go down tot he DMV and tell then you are driving a big class A, and they give you a new license with the letter on it. You just have to pay the normal fee for getting a license.
You pay 3% on the purchase price when you register it in New Mexico.
The registration fee for up to 20K lbs is $163, up to 22K is $178 and over that is $193 per year.

Here are some links for you:

RV Registration in NM

Fee Schedule