Counting down and domicile questions

[JimM68]

We have a solid contract on our house, and will be full time on July 24!

(Yeah!!!)

I have some serious wondering about this whole domicile question?

I know that the most popular states are Texas, Florida, and South Dakota, but why?
Info is hard to find, other than "we don't give legal advice" and (from Escapee's) "we now offer services in all three of those states, so send us money..."

We are currently residents of Illinois. Our income tax rate is 3%, and it costs $100/year to renew the plates on our motorhome.

My company is a Montana LLC. We have had a mail forwarding company in Montana for years, sending our personal mail there will cost me nothing.

The company's physical Location will remain Illinois, and as long as that is true, we will have to file and pay personal taxes in Illinois. We do split the income between Illinois and Montana.

Our current health plan (Illinois bcbs bronze 006) cost is very low and nationwide network.

So my questions are:
Do we have much to gain by moving out of Illinois?
Why don't RVers domicile in Montana anymore?
Is there anything to gain by "moving to Texas"?

And what does mail forwarding have to do with any of this?
When I go on Escapee's website, step one is "pick one of these three states"
and step two is "send escapee's money for mail forwarding in your choice of those 3 states"

What does mail forwarding have to do with domicile and address?
(south Dakota will accept a campground receipt, no mention of where you get your mail...)

Am I overcomplicating this?

and please don't say "hire a lawyer", I'm one who believes that the world would be a better place if all lawyers (and politicians, who are all just failed lawyers anyway) had died on the Titanic.

[MTPockets1]

MyRVMail. Website may have some of the answers you need. This is our mail service in FL. They were very helpful for us.

[JimM68]

C-Bears wrote:
Since you are currently filing your taxes in Illinois, your number 1 priority should be to make a domicile change that will allow you to file your income taxes from another state.

Even if the new Governor gets his way with some reforms there is still going to be significant tax increases along the way. It could be the state income tax or it could be other fees, like taxes on services or license plates fees.

I don't think you are right there...

Since I still own business property in Illinois, and since much of my business is shipping and receiving from that address, I don't think I can completely escape Illinois 3% income tax. This would all be a no brainer if I could.

For years now, I filed personal income tax in both Montana and Illinois, to escape Illinois (5.5% before this year) income tax on edelivery, dropship, or other products that never entered Illinois.

But until I lose that warehouse, I think I'll need to file here and pay then a share....

[JimM68]

C-Bears wrote:
When we sold our home in Illinois and started full timing we kept Illinois as our domicile state. We used our son's address and he forwarded our mail. This method worked okay except for jury duty problems.

We recently purchased a residence in Florida and plan on living in it about 5 or 6 months every year. Switching over vehicle titles can range from $200 or more depending on weight registered. But you will make that up because the yearly plate renewal is about 1/3 of what Illinois is.

I really can't add much to what has already been stated otherwise. There is a lot to consider when picking the state.

Huh? Plate renewal in Illinois is $101.
I think it just went up a few bucks.
So cheap it's not been on my "issue" list, except in comparing to states that charge a huge personal property tax on RV's....

Am I missing something?

[JimM68]

stickdog wrote:
The only reason we left Illinois and relocated to SD was that we were in the Chicago Metro area and did not want to return for Air Quality vehicle testing.
If you are not on Medicare or have nationwide health coverage, SD the last I read did not offer any nationwide health care plans. We have BCBS from retirement plan so that does not bother us.
If I were you I'd stay in Illinois. We did save a little on vehicle insurance it covers the cost of the mail service.

Wow, really good point I had forgotten about. When we lived in Yorkville, no emissions testing. But we moved to Oswego last December, and emissions testing is reality there.

"soon" ish I'm goping to actually get my class b non-cdl license, and when there, I'm going to ask them if I can update my mailing address to my montana forwarder...
Wonder what difference that will make for emissions testing?

[JimM68]

Executive wrote:
Jim covered most of the issues already and did a good job. Some caveats regarding SD, (I can't speak for Texas) SD does have a 'wheel tax' for many of it's counties. We use Americas Mailbox in Pennington County which has no tax. SD has no income tax and only a 3% sales tax. (important if you're buying a new rig for full timing). You already have a Montana LLC so you know the rules there, or you just haven't been caught yet...:W...

Unless you're going to continue to work in your business you can choose your domicile State. That said, whatever state you choose, be sure to commit to that State. This means moving ALL your correspondence to that State...i.e. driver's license, registration, bank accounts voter registration etc. The IRS, which is the driving force looks at your "intent" in establishing residency. Just because your rig is reg in Montana does not make you a Montana resident. You establish your 'intent' by doing the aforementioned things.

Finally, check your medical plans. If you're on medicare, often the level of coverage is dependent on where you live. Choose this wisely so you will have coverage if traveling in another state.

Same deal with insurance on your rig. Only a handful of insurance companies will give you full timer coverage. Yes, you can get regular coverage but full timer coverage is like a homeowner's and car insurance policy. (covers you if someone gets hurt while visiting you and also covers other perils not covered with reg auto insurance)..good luck and safe travels...Dennis

Thanks Dennis. If you recall from before they tossed me off IRV2 for being too political, the Illinois Revenuers did in fact bust my ass a few years ago. It cost me near $7000 in sales tax, and the Knight is currently registered, titled, and plated in Illinois.

As we are quite pre-medicare, health insurance is a huge concern. We currently have a BCBS Illinois bronze 006 plan, $6k deductible, nationwide network, at my current estimate of income, and before the supreme court throws obamacare in the trash heap where it belongs, our premiums are eighteen dollar for a family of 4.

I spoke to the full time RVers healthcare guru yesterday, he advised me to at least ride out 2015 the way things are...

[JimM68]

BarbaraOK wrote:
One thing that the mail forwarders do is provide an address for things like VOTING, registering vehicles, drivers licenses, insurance, jury duty, etc. If you stay residents of Illinois what will you do for an address? Will the state recognize that address for voting? Will an insurance company accept that for a 'garaged' address to calculate insurance premiums; will a health insurance company accept that address as your legal address? What does the mail forwarder in Illinois know about the fulltime life style?

Let me turn the question back to you. Why are you so upset with this process? Of course Escapees will charge you money to set up your address, etc. So will any other mail forwarder. As long as you are using the business umbrella, most of this won't apply to you - so why are you so angry at companies that do provide that for others that are fulltiming? BTW - will MT excuse you from jury duty and allow you to vote using the company's 'address' in MT? You might want to check that out. And will MT allow you to get drivers licenses based upon that address? Again, you need to check that out.

Barb

Wow, Barb, get back on your meds... I am certainly not mad at anyone, except perhaps my wife who has asked me sixty two times in the past 2 weeks "What did u waste $40 on that escapees membership for?"

My mail forwarding service that I use for my business is in Montana, not Illinois...

I am continuing to read all of this for the first time today, and I thank all of you for taking the time to reply.

[C-Bears]

Since you are currently filing your taxes in Illinois, your number 1 priority should be to make a domicile change that will allow you to file your income taxes from another state.

Even if the new Governor gets his way with some reforms there is still going to be significant tax increases along the way. It could be the state income tax or it could be other fees, like taxes on services or license plates fees.

[Cummins12V98]

Impact fees, taxes call them what you want. You just need to figure who is going to take the least of your hard earned money! From my experience South Dakota fits that bill.

Washington State nearly 10% on new truck and RV compared to 4% in SD.

[C-Bears]

rockhillmanor wrote:

retispcsi wrote:
I have to add that impact fees are charged when you build structure. ie, home etc. Does not apply to vehicles.

Sorry this is wrong.

Any vehicle coming from and titled in another state DOES have a one time fee added to the registration to get plates in Florida. I.E. commonly referred to as an impact fee.

Been there done that AND PAID FOR IT in Florida just last week.

I also found out when I tried selling my Toad in Florida that once they came out and saw it was registered in Wisconsin that many 'Florida resident' buyers on a budget could not buy my car when they figured in the fact that they had to add another $500.00 to the cost of the car for that same fee to register it in Florida.

It was our understanding that "impact fees" only came into play when obtaining permits for building a home, or placing a park model on a lot, etc. We also are changing over our vehicles to Florida titled/registered after switching our driver's license last month. The officials, nor the paperwork, have never called the transfer fees "impact fees". Florida does charge a rather large title transfer fee for changing your vehicle title over to a Florida title.

[rockhillmanor]

retispcsi wrote:
I have to add that impact fees are charged when you build structure. ie, home etc. Does not apply to vehicles.

Sorry this is wrong.

Any vehicle coming from and titled in another state DOES have a one time fee added to the registration to get plates in Florida. I.E. commonly referred to as an impact fee.

Been there done that AND PAID FOR IT in Florida just last week.

I also found out when I tried selling my Toad in Florida that once they came out and saw it was registered in Wisconsin that many 'Florida resident' buyers on a budget could not buy my car when they figured in the fact that they had to add another $500.00 to the cost of the car for that same fee to register it in Florida.

[Cummins12V98]

Do your self a favor and contact this lady. She will make your live so easy!

Terri Lund
My Dakota Address
110 E. Center St.
Madison, SD 57042
www.mydakotaaddress.com
Phone: 605-427-5863
Fax: 605-427-9626

[retispcsi]

I have to add that impact fees are charged when you build structure. ie, home etc. Does not apply to vehicles. If you choose Fl. you receive your mail forwarding address you will need to show proof of that address. What we did was change our address on our vehicle insurance, cell phone bill and bank account. We needed two docs and did three. If you have never applied for a license in Florida you will need a certified birth certificate or passport. Your wife will need a divorce decree if she was married before. ie name change. Easy as eating pie. I came from Ill. originally. Good luck whatever you choose.

[C-Bears]

When we sold our home in Illinois and started full timing we kept Illinois as our domicile state. We used our son's address and he forwarded our mail. This method worked okay except for jury duty problems.

We recently purchased a residence in Florida and plan on living in it about 5 or 6 months every year. Switching over vehicle titles can range from $200 or more depending on weight registered. But you will make that up because the yearly plate renewal is about 1/3 of what Illinois is.

I really can't add much to what has already been stated otherwise. There is a lot to consider when picking the state.

[rockhillmanor]

I'll just add what "I" did not take into consideration when making my decisions when I went full time and how it affected me when I decided to pull off the road.

If you leave your vehicles registered in Illinois you will have to travel back there each time for emissions testing to renew your plates.

So pick a state that does NOT have emissions testing.

Pick a state that does not have state income tax if that is an attracting bonus for your financial situation and/or if you are near retirement. Owning a company in your home state might alter what is the best decision for you though.

If you choose Florida keep in mind there is an impact fee the first time you register your vehicle there count on around $500 per vehicle.

And yes some of those states will allow a mailing company address BUT when that address goes on your drivers license it can cause additional problems down the road with your insurance and other institutions that do NOT allow mailing address' and require your DL for proof of address. An oxymoron at it's best.

Do your homework and read read about all the different options before you jump ship! :W

Here's a few for you to peruse over! :B
http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/Best-States-for-Retirees.htm
http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/tax-free-states.htm
http://retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html