If you live part of the year in a Northern state, or
maintain bank accounts, brokerage accounts,
a home, club memberships, church
memberships, and other ties to a Northern
state, you increase the likelihood that the
Northern state will assert that you owe it
taxes.
Likewise, if you register to vote in Florida,
and file a "Declaration of Domicile" with
the Clerk of Court, and register your cars
in Florida, but continue to live eight
months out of the year in Illinois for example, in a
house where you have lived for the last
forty-five years, surrounded by the furniture
and furnishings that you have accumulated
in that time, Illinois (example only) may assert
that you owe income taxes to Illinois. After
your death, your estate may be assessed
for Illinois inheritance taxes and any income
taxes that you failed to pay to Illinois
for several years before your death, plus
interest and penalties. And, Illinois might
be right. You can be considered to be a domiciliary
of two or more states. It all depends
on the facts.
Therefore, if you want to benefit from the
advantages of Florida law, and avoid the
income and inheritance taxes of a Northern
state, you must clearly and completely
demonstrate that you have become a
"Florida domiciliary" or "permanent Florida
resident." You must clearly demonstrate
that your "heart" is located in Florida.
To do that, you should, in general, change
the "habits of a lifetime" and sever all ties
to the Northern state, by selling your
home, canceling all club, social, religious,
financial and professional relationships,
and moving all of your property to Florida,
and live in Florida all year.
As Northern
states become more aggressive in seeking
revenue from their former or part-time residents,
it is becoming harder and harder to
"have your cake and eat it too" by living
part of the year in a Northern state and
part of the year in Florida and avoiding the
laws of the Northern state which seek to
tax your income and your estate. Remember:
you can consider yourself a Florida
resident, but the judgment of a Northern
tax auditor may be otherwise. It all depends
on the facts. Therefore, if you want
to avoid taxation of your income and your
estate by a Northern state, you must build
your case for Florida residency by doing
the following:
Record a Declaration of Domicile with the
Clerk of the Court in the county where you
live. The Clerk of the Court has the form;
you can fill it out in the Clerk's office.
Consult with an attorney licensed to practice
in Florida, and execute a new will in
Florida that recites that you are a Florida
resident. Have your trust documents reviewed
by the Florida licensed attorney.
Consult with a Florida physician regarding
your health matters.
Consult with a Florida accountant regarding
you tax and financial matters.
Consult with a Florida financial consultant
regarding your investments, life insurance
policies, annuities, stocks, bonds, etc.; own
your brokerage accounts through a financial
consultant with a Florida office, not
the Northern office of a national brokerage
house.
Close out your Northern bank accounts,
stockbroker accounts, safety deposit boxes,
etc. Reopen these in Florida. If you must
have a checking account in another state,
keep the balance small and have the statement
mailed to Florida, except for the
time, if any, you spend up North.
Move all of your valuable papers to Florida,
to a safety deposit box in Florida, if
you have one. This includes stocks, bonds,
CD's, life insurance policies, annuity contracts,
deeds, birth certificates, marriage
certificates, etc.
Move any trust relationships managed by a
professional trustee to a Florida trust company.
Register to vote in Florida and vote in elections.
Register your cars in Florida.
Get a Florida driver's license; send back
your Northern driver's license and cancel
it.
If you own your home in Florida, file for
the homestead exemption from taxation
between January 1 and February 28 of the
next year after you move to Florida.
Transfer your jewelry and other movable
personal property to Florida.
Bring the furniture and furnishings that
you accumulated in your Northern
home to Florida, unless you want to sell
it all or give it to the children and
friends and buy new furniture in Florida.
Sell your Northern home and buy a permanent
residence in Florida. You must
be concerned with the lifetime exemption
available to the seller of a primary
residence that is over the age of 55. If
you move to Florida, declare yourself a
Florida resident and no longer use your
former Northern home as your primary
residence, which you could not do if
you are a Florida resident, you may lose
the exemption; you need to consult with
a Florida licensed attorney and accountant
regarding this issue.
Use your Florida address as your permanent
address for social security, veterans'
benefits, magazine subscriptions,
bank accounts, etc.
If you own stocks and bonds or other
intangible personal property, file a Florida
Intangible Personal Property Tax
Return.
File your federal income tax return from
Florida.
Live in Florida year round. If you must
live in a Northern state, rent if you can,
and if you cannot, own a "vacation"
home or at least a home smaller than
your Florida home.
All of the foregoing are things that Florida
residents do. Florida residents have
no ties to a Northern state. To the extent
that you maintain ties to a Northern
state, you are building a case for a tax
auditor from a Northern state to claim
you were a resident of the Northern
state and therefore subject to that state's
income taxes and estate taxes. Please
understand that the Northern states are
aggressively looking for "part-time" residents,
who claim Florida domicile but
still have ties to a Northern state. Such
"part-time" Florida residents run the
risk of being taxed as residents of a
Northern state.
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