Florida domicile

If you have not joined Escapees, then I suggest that you do so. Then talk to the Escapees folks - they are great. I believe they have a mail service set up in Florida now so they should be able to guide you on the process.

Whether its FL, SD or TX, the process is the same and 1000's do it every year with no issues. Its the same process as if you sold the NY home & bought a new home in Fl.
When your prior state is one of the most aggressive tax states, like Ca & NY, you just have to be careful not to try to shortcut the process or shortcut your final NY tax bill. The few who get into tax trouble usually tried to say they "moved" out of state before they actually did. or they try to say they moved to FL but continue spending 6 months a year living in NY. or they buy a new RV while still living in NY and try to play games avoiding the NY sales tax.
As long as you pay NY taxes until the day you physically move out of NY, you should have no issues. No matter what you setup in FL,SD,TX, your domicile doesn't change until you leave your old state and stay out of that state for most of the year.

g demorest wrote:
Would like to hear from anyone who has set up domicile in Florida . Would like to set up domicile in Florida and wondering how easy it was for you. We will use escapes club to do this . Has there been any issues with the state that you sold your house in like taxes etc. we have time , we hope to full time in two to three years, just trying research this now so we do it right.

edbehnke wrote:
if you plan on traveling and not relocate in florida, you might want to look at another state, SD. advantage is that you have cheaper sales tax should you want to buy rig/trade in, auto insurance cheaper, no emission testing and of course no income tax.

If you're under 65 & have to buy health insurance, SD is not the place.

It's easy. Buy a house in Florida. lizzie

TenOC wrote:
No income tax in FL, but I think (?) that FL has some type of yearly tax on stocks and mutual funds over a ??? amount.

No. The intangible personal property tax (stocks, etc.) was eliminated almost 10 years ago.

OP: There is discussion of using Escapees on the Escapees forum.

We fulltime and are Fla Residents. We owned a home in SW Fla. for a number of years before selling and going fulltime. We use Good Sam mail forwarding in Crestview for the last year and a half no issues. The folks at the courthouse in Okaloosa Co. where you would go to register are pleasant and very accustom to fulltimers. You will need to have docs showing you are moving to Fla. Check with web page or call the tax collector in the county. That is where we take care of these matters. Insurance cost depend on what part of Fla. you domicile in. Actually our Ins. cost went down when we moved from SW Fla Okaloosa Co. The address you get is you legal address and can be used for any need just like if you live in an home. Benefits of Fla. 1. no state income tax. 2. 6% sales tax on veh. purchases. 3. No special license needed to drive your RV or truck/trailer combo. 4. If you are 65 or 100% disabled our State Park campgrounds are half price and they are nice. We are currently spending 6 months in different state campgrounds and it is costing us less then 3K for the winter. 5. You do not have to spend anytime in Fla. to keep domicile. I think SD you need to spend one night and have receipt 6. No veh or emission checks.

No income tax in FL, but I think (?) that FL has some type of yearly tax on stocks and mutual funds over a ??? amount.

We purchased a home in Florida, so we have a physical address. No problem transferring anything. The vehicle registration was higher. Our insurance is less then Progressive. Now with insurance through Good Sam. But we went from a full timer ins. to a part time ins. Each person is different, and like I said we had absolutely no problem. You just have to do the research on your own.

We made Florida our domicile state when we went fulltime. The order we did it in:
1. Got a viable address/mail service. We used Good Sam in Crestview. Escapee's works as well - check insurance rates (car and health) as they vary by county.
2. Once the address was official, we changed our bank account, finance accounts, and credit card addresses to match. It took about three weeks total as we had to wait for a bank statement for proof of address.
3. We titled and registered our car/MH. This was simple for us as we bought new (in Maryland) and had the dealers do it using our new address. Bought insurance on-line during purchase (Progressive.com). Took two weeks (by mail) to receive our permanent plates. Maryland and Florida sales tax were the same so we eliminated transferring issues. Auto insurance prices were also comparable (a little less in FL).
4. Drove to Florida, got our licenses and registered to vote. Took 1/2 an hour. No questions asked.

We 'moved' to Florida in September so we paid income taxes to Maryland for 9 months and nothing to Florida. We did get a deduction for sales tax paid for our RV and car.