Taxes by State

We chose SD and have been legal residents for over 12 years. We winter in Mesa
AZ for six months and travel for six months. Never had a problem with our
mail service in Sioux Falls. SD is a very friendly "full-timer" state.

We've been retired for 15 years and "taxes" is the least of our expenses here in California. Other ever-increasing living expenses are eating as alive way faster than taxes.

A better retirement expense location criteria might be "what state(s) has(have) the lowest cost of living for everyone"?

All plans that I have seen have "emergency" provisions so that if you are on vacation you are covered, at least in part. How often does everyone need to see a physician? We always did loops so that every year we were back to see our primary care physician, get our check ups, labs, adjust meds if necessary, then off we would go. Maybe 4 times in 9 years did we use an urgent care type facility for a short term problem. At 9 years, we found that we needed more than a couple of weeks to get all medical check ups done and changed our primary care physician to Arizona where we spend the winter. Of course we are now on Medicare. But if you are so ill the you can't do without see a physician every few weeks, maybe fulltiming isn't for you.

Barb

accsys wrote:

TechWriter wrote:

accsys wrote:
There is a reason why most full-timers choose Texas, South Dakota or Florida for their domicile state.

Unless you're under 65, then the first 2 are out.

Please explain, how does being under 65 hurt you in SD and TX?

Someone under 65 needs health insurance that will travel with them from state-to-state. SD & TX do not have that. FL currently does, but that could change as it seems to be ever changing each year.

TechWriter wrote:

accsys wrote:
There is a reason why most full-timers choose Texas, South Dakota or Florida for their domicile state.

Unless you're under 65, then the first 2 are out.

Please explain, how does being under 65 hurt you in SD and TX?

bucky wrote:
The states are going to fund their budgets with our money one way or another. No state income tax?, better watch out for sales and property tax and so on.
Live where you want to and enjoy the rest of your life.

Not entirely true - some states do a better job of managing their money than others. As an example we are spending the summer in Yavapai County, AZ where the sales tax is a little over 9 percent on almost everything you buy, including groceries and electricity. They also have a state income tax.

Our home base is in NE Florida where the sales tax is 7 percent with many exemptions, food being one of the major ones AND the state has no income tax. The property tax on our 200,000+ home is less than 1,500 per year. The FL annual registration on our MH and two cars is less than $200 per year yet they manage to have some of the best roads in the country. Of course FL collects a lot of sales tax from tourists but then AZ gets its share as well.

California is an example of the extreme waste and you see high sales tax, property tax and income tax and a constant need for more money as they cannot manage what they have.

One problem I have with those retiree guides is that a significant part of the ‘cost’ of a state/ city is sales tax and fuel taxes.

We’ve been in 46 states since starting our full-time journey on March 6, 2014. Some as little as one-day, some such as a volunteer stretch with the COE in Connecticut for six months.

How do those sales and fuel taxes impact my residence/ domicile of Texas if I wanted to bother figuring it out.

Those guides are based upon a presumption that the retiree will spend 48 or more weeks per year in their primary residence location.

RVers don’t do that.

I believe you are right. Probably best to stick with the devil I know.

Cheers

It's easy to drive yourself crazy on this topic. The states are going to fund their budgets with our money one way or another. No state income tax?, better watch out for sales and property tax and so on.
Live where you want to and enjoy the rest of your life.

accsys wrote:
There is a reason why most full-timers choose Texas, South Dakota or Florida for their domicile state.

Unless you're under 65, then the first 2 are out.