Question for full timers

Forgot to mention that you can have your mail forwarding service send a package of your mail to General Delivery at any US Post office. It is best to pick a small town that only has one small post office in it so your mail package doesn't get lost in a big facility. You just go in to the Post Office and show your ID to pick up your mail. They will hold your mail for up to 30 days if I recall correctly. Even after the 30 days, they simply return your mail to the sender (your mail forwarding service).

You will need an address for:
Tax Filing
Auto Insurance
Vehicle Registration
Medical/Health Insurance
Banking
Voter Registration
other things that I've forgotten.

As mentioned above there are many companies that provide mail forwarding service. The majority of full timers use either Texas, Florida or South Dakota as their state of legal residence.

Best advice I can give you is once you do your research and pick a service and address that meets your needs, then use it for EVERYTHING. Don't try to cherry pick the best rates and costs by using one address for one thing and another address for another item. It is too confusing and can lead to too many questions about whether your intent was to be a "fulltimer" or if your intent was to evade/avoid paying taxes.

When we were full timing we used Alternative Resources (http://www.alternativeresources.net) out of Sioux Falls, SD.

At the time we were living in Wisconsin and it was and still is a high tax state, after looking at all the states that we could use we picked South Dakota, but there are several states that if you are full timing can reduce your taxes. The following are some advantages of SD.
* No State Income Tax
* No Personal Property Tax
* 3% Excise Tax on net Purchase of Vehicles, RV's
* Ranks 47th in Lowest Private Passenger Car Insurance Rates * No State Inheritance Tax
* No Intangible Tax on Investments
* Low Vehicle License Fees
* No Vehicle Inspections
• South Dakota per capita taxes lowest in Nation (Sioux Falls Argus Leader 7/27/01)

We rely on America's Mailbox in Rapid City SD. They provide us with a "residential" address we use for voter and vehicle registration and driver's licenses. They also accumulate our mail, discard all the junk, and then ship the good stuff to us whenever we ask, which is generally once a month around the 15th. We also don't like to stay anywhere very long - 2-3 weeks is our typical maximum, but we'll make sure to be somewhere long enough around the 15th for our shipment to find us.

We chose SD as our domicile state primarily for the tax benefit, but find that our insurance rates are also a tad lower than other no-tax states. Plus, there's no annual vehicle inspection required.

America's Mailbox website has lots of info, as does the Escapees website.

Good luck and have fun - that's what it's all about.

al

We use Escapees. They do mail forwarding, tax, voting and so much more.

We use a mail forwarding service in Florida which is our permanent/legal address. Go to www.goodsammailservice.com to check it out. We can check on line to see what mail is there and have it sent when, how,and where we want. They also provide scanning service and will trash mail you don't want. THere is lots of good information about the service on their site. There are also other good services available in other states.