For instance, if you had dinner at a Florida restaurant, a receipt for the meal will help prove that you were in Florida on that particular day. It’s also a good idea to keep a log of where you are each day of the year, just in case the tax agency from your northern state picks you for a residency audit. Keeping receipts from the time you spent in Florida will also help if you’re audited. If you can’t spend that much time in Florida, then take a vacation, visit family or friends, or otherwise spend time in some other location-anything to avoid spending 183 days or more in your high-tax summer state. Obviously, if you spend more than half your time in Florida, you won’t reach the 183-day threshold in the state where you spend your summers. Here are 15 things you can do to show that you are, in fact, a resident of Florida if your summer state challenges your residency status. So, if you’re going to make that claim, be sure you can back it up. The tax agencies in many high-tax northern states have well-earned reputations for fighting wealthier snowbirds who suddenly claim to be Florida residents. So if your summer home is in one of those high-tax states up north-New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois, Connecticut, Wisconsin and the like-you can potentially save thousands of dollars each year if you can establish residency in Florida instead (perhaps millions for someone like President Trump).īut you can’t just say “I’m a Florida resident” and have the income tax bill from your summer state magically disappear. You need to show that Florida is your primary and permanent home-and it’s your actions, not your words, that count the most. That means cutting as many northern ties as possible and putting down roots in Florida.īut no matter how rooted in Florida you become, don’t be surprised if your summer state still wants you to pay taxes as a resident on all your income (instead of paying tax only on in-state income as a nonresident). After all, Florida is one of only nine states without an income tax. And if you’re one of the thousands of snowbirds heading to Florida this year, I bet you’ll hear a lot of chatter about the tax benefits of being a resident of the Sunshine State. “Snowbirds” are people who live up north during the warm-weather months and in the south during the winter.
Of course, we’re not talking about real birds. Shorter days, leafless trees and frost on the ground are all signs that it’s time for snowbirds to head south for the winter.
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