State of residence for full timers
Question for the full timers out there. If you're truly full timing it and have no physical address, what is your state/county/city/township for things like voting, tax status, etc? I would think ...
Forum Discussion
I was an official South Dakota resident for 4 years until recently. I changed because I bought a house in another state and after owning the house for a year maintaining a SD residency became confusing.
South Dakota is a great state for residency: no income taxes, no vehicle inspections, low vehicle insurance costs and it is or at least was easy to establish residency. I only needed a receipt from one night in a motel or campground. We already had a mailing service and after the one night we were able to establish residency with new plates, registration, vehicle title. South Dakota is very accommodating for residents who travel. There is no issue with things such as jury duty or voting.
There are some issues with using a mailing service as a permanent address. Some people, businesses, and Federal government agencies seem to believe that it is required for everyone to have a fixed address such as a house, apartment or piece of land. To minimize problems I always filled out forms using my mail box number in place of an apartment number. Even that did not always work. When I registered for social security the paperwork specified that a mailing address was not acceptable. I used the mailing address anyway and made a comment on the form. That worked with no further issues.
It turns out that residency is a strange and legally complicated issue. Most of the laws and regulations involving residency read like gibberish. Personal "intent" is usually a major factor. States want to collect incomes taxes even though you do not own or rent property. They can be unfair and very aggressive when it comes to taxes. However, they do not want you to qualify as a resident if you live in another State and then move to attend a State college or university. Sometimes they even want out of State tuition but then require students to perform jury duty.
Even though I own a house in another State and live there several months a year, I could have maintained my South Dakota residency. Unfortunately I used Alternative Resources as my mail provider. The owner sold and his business was bought by Dakota Post. Dakota Post screwed up my mail deliveries and then told me I needed to change my mailing address. I found about 30 places I needed to notify and new ones keep popping up. There was going to be an issue with drivers license renewals so I changed residency to another State.
South Dakota is a great state for residency: no income taxes, no vehicle inspections, low vehicle insurance costs and it is or at least was easy to establish residency. I only needed a receipt from one night in a motel or campground. We already had a mailing service and after the one night we were able to establish residency with new plates, registration, vehicle title. South Dakota is very accommodating for residents who travel. There is no issue with things such as jury duty or voting.
There are some issues with using a mailing service as a permanent address. Some people, businesses, and Federal government agencies seem to believe that it is required for everyone to have a fixed address such as a house, apartment or piece of land. To minimize problems I always filled out forms using my mail box number in place of an apartment number. Even that did not always work. When I registered for social security the paperwork specified that a mailing address was not acceptable. I used the mailing address anyway and made a comment on the form. That worked with no further issues.
It turns out that residency is a strange and legally complicated issue. Most of the laws and regulations involving residency read like gibberish. Personal "intent" is usually a major factor. States want to collect incomes taxes even though you do not own or rent property. They can be unfair and very aggressive when it comes to taxes. However, they do not want you to qualify as a resident if you live in another State and then move to attend a State college or university. Sometimes they even want out of State tuition but then require students to perform jury duty.
Even though I own a house in another State and live there several months a year, I could have maintained my South Dakota residency. Unfortunately I used Alternative Resources as my mail provider. The owner sold and his business was bought by Dakota Post. Dakota Post screwed up my mail deliveries and then told me I needed to change my mailing address. I found about 30 places I needed to notify and new ones keep popping up. There was going to be an issue with drivers license renewals so I changed residency to another State.
