Florida domicile people do you stay 6 months there?

[dcason]

I read somewhere that florida domicile requires 6 months stay in florida? Does anyone that uses florida as domicile stay that long? NY (high tax state) is currently our domicile (full time beginning late july 2021) but thinking about using florida since we do spend about 3 months there each year (sometimes 4). Am I being too anal?
Donna

[monkey44]

Kate and Ed wrote:

Might not be right place for question but…
Have friend in WA state that’s on state insurance guess like Medicaid when she needs it. She is a Gold Star widow and decided to buy RV, truck and full time. Sold home. Military wife doesn’t work. Read somewhere can’t use insurance out of state except for FL allows it. Could that be true?

*********************888

Gold Star Widow are usually eligible for ChampusVA or Tricare... both are good nationwide, or sometimes internationally.

I'd get her to a VA clinic Advocate ASAP and find out. Most VA hospitals and clinics have an in-house advocate for VA benefits, and will help her file if she is eligible. Run, don't walk to the nearest VA building and ask that question.

[gary7n]

My wife is a retired state employee. As such we do not pay NYS income taxes on her retirement pension, but if we establish our residence out of state we do. They do have a ball and chain on us.

[valhalla360]

wanderingbob wrote:
My wife and I filed a Proclamation of Domicile ln Florida , for thirteen years and never set foot in Florida , done every day by military , embassy workers , and just about any reason .

Getting away with it is different from being legitimately domiciled.

You didn't say where you moved from. Most low tax states aren't going to care if you legitimately leave. It's more hassle than it's worth to pursue you. It's the high tax states that may challenge it if you have a potential for a big tax bill.

Most privates in the army make next to nothing, so they aren't a big tax target. Plus there is the PR aspect of going after our men in uniform that is unpalatable. Much different from a well off middle class tax payer who might be on the hook for thousands of dollars.

At 13yrs, it's unlikely your original domicile state will make an issue of it. You are probably off their radar. Of course, win a $300million lotto and don't be surprised if they suddenly come snooping around to see if they can attach a tax bill to a percentage of your winnings. California or NY would love to snag $30million and even if it's not a sure thing, it might be worth trying.

[Rice]

Kate and Ed wrote:
Might not be right place for question but…
Have friend in WA state that’s on state insurance guess like Medicaid when she needs it. She is a Gold Star widow and decided to buy RV, truck and full time. Sold home. Military wife doesn’t work. Read somewhere can’t use insurance out of state except for FL allows it. Could that be true?

It's not the state that allows or disallows it--it's the insurance plan. The Florida ACA (Obamacare) Exchange has some Florida Blue plans that provide access to Blue Cross's nationwide network. That's what you hear about fulltimers using.

The Florida ACA Exchange also has plans from other companies (and some different plans from Florida Blue) that do not offer access to Blue Cross's nationwide network. As I said, it depends on the plan.

In your friend's case, it doesn't sound like she has health insurance but instead is covered by some sort of state program. If it's Medicaid, she definitely can't use it outside the state (unless it's an emergency). Medicaid is a state-based program, for residents of that state, and with providers in that state.

If she has something else, for example based on her husband's military service, I don't know anything about those. But she should definitely do a deep dive if she intends to use it outside the state.

[wanderingbob]

My wife and I filed a Proclamation of Domicile ln Florida , for thirteen years and never set foot in Florida , done every day by military , embassy workers , and just about any reason .

[Michelle_S]

Our Official Address is the GoodSam Mail Forwarding Service in Crestview Florida. Been using it for better than 8 years now and it's the address the IRS and SSI have on file for us, have Florida Driver's License, CCW permits, and Voter Reg card. We still own property and house in Western NY (Rochester/Buffalo area), but it is insured as a seasonal residence. We use it as a home base during our non-travel times during the summer, but generally only 2 or 3 months as a week here two weeks there, not a solid 2 or 3 months.

[Ivylog]

It’s not FL I’d worry about as the length of time you posted, NY will. You might get away with it by paying cash for everything for several months while in NY.

[Kate_and_Ed]

Might not be right place for question but…
Have friend in WA state that’s on state insurance guess like Medicaid when she needs it. She is a Gold Star widow and decided to buy RV, truck and full time. Sold home. Military wife doesn’t work. Read somewhere can’t use insurance out of state except for FL allows it. Could that be true?

[valhalla360]

dcason wrote:
Yeah, NY makes me wonder...greedy. We will be selling house end of July in NY but have grandchildren in NY so May - September? and possibly a month around christmas would be NY. It is not like we will never return...have ties there.
Donna

May-September plus December is 6-7 months in NY each year.

That sounds like you are domiciling in NY. And that sounds pretty legitimate (not intrinsically greedy) if NY decides to challenge your domicile. No guarantee they will come after you but it really comes across that you are playing the system without really changing your domicile.

Not sure where the grandkids are geographically but if near a state border, consider getting a campground just outside the state or do a month in NY and a month outside. If you cut down your time in NY to 3-4 months, you have a much stronger case...particularly if you spend more time in your new domicile state.

[Ro_n_Joe]

No for sure you don't need to spend 6 months in FL. We flew into Crestview FL scheduled 5 days to set up the domicile and actually did it in one afternoon. May take longer because we just switched our Montana LLC registration in April to FL and took 3 hrs waiting in line at the Crestview DMV office. Supposedly can set up appointments now to save time at the DMV office. Afterwards we went to a lawyer to set up our living will. You need to set up a mailing address ASAP to show bills with your new FL address. We use MyRVmail.com who has been great to work with for just over 1.5yrs now.

[ferndaleflyer]

Nothing wrong with owning property in different states, I own property in 3. You can claim residence in any of them and you can't be in more than one permanently.

[Michelle_S]

We in Florida 6 to 8, but Florida does care how long you stay.
When we did everything we were in Fort Pierce on the East Coast as we've never set foot in Crestview. And I agree it varies from County to County because we've had friends that didn't show anything other then vehicle title and drivers license.

[dcason]

Michelle S...do you stay in florida for six months?

Donna

[agesilaus]

When we got licenses/registrations in Florida we had to show several bills with the Crestview address and hand them our NY Drivers license.

I am a native FL resident so I never had to go thru the process. But from what I hear it varies by counties, different Tax Assessors, the St Brendans Isle people seem to have smoothed the way with their local county, I don't know about Crestview but once you get thru the process you are done. I have heard some people complaining about trying to do it by themselves in the Tampa Bay area and being refused. Apocryphal of course. And Tax Assessors come and go with the election seasons but I'd guess they are rarely voted out.