domicile confused

valhalla360 wrote:
It's not do A, B & C and your domicile is officially changed.

It's establishing a pattern consistent with having a new domicile.
- Traditionally, you sell your house in NY, buy a house in Idaho, live 10-12months of the year in Idaho, all your bills, doctors, etc are now from Idaho, you license, voter registration, etc... is from Idaho...Work tends to be connected to Idaho. It's a very strong pattern that is hard to argue against. It's also very familiar to the authorities and no one is likely to question it.
- Full timing in your RV, you lose many of those obvious triggers that show a traditional pattern of domiciling in Idaho. You may only spend 2-3 months in Idaho (not the majority of your time). You may not have any utility bills or other ongoing links you can point to that say Idaho. You may keep your NY doctors because you like them. You may spend similar time in NY to visit friends and family. You may still have some work connection (if not retired) in NY. It basically creates an inconsistent pattern that doesn't clearly break from being domiciled in NY.

Now if you are moving from Florida to Texas. Neither state really cares as they don't have income taxes or other large taxes associated with being domiciled there. It doesn't cost them anything if you leave. They simply won't care and if no one challenges your assertion that you have changed your domicile, it's changed for all practical purposes.

If you move away from NY, California, Illinois on the other hand, they have substantial income taxes and if you leave, they lose that money. If you are really spending 8-10month each year in NY and you have NY drivers license and NY doctors, there is a good chance, NY comes back and challenges your assertion that you have changed your domicile because they want their proverbial "pound of flesh" come tax time.

Probably worse now is with remote working, you face a new situation. Lots of people don't really want to move but they may be tempted to skirt the rules and change their domicile even though they are in fact still living in the same state. This makes state officials suspicious and the response is often guilty until proven innocent. They will send a big bill for unpaid income tax and you have to prove you aren't domiciled. These people often use the same mail forwarding services in low tax states, so when these addresses come up, the assumption is you may be doing the same thing.

So there is nothing illegal about moving your domicile but the more you can demonstrate a pattern of not living in your old state, the better your case if they challenge it.