Texas Residency

[gesam]

Hello,

We are going to be selling our house and hitting the road full time. I have read a lot of information about establishing residency (South Dakota, Texas, Florida...) and the Mail Services that can help with a lot of the details.

My question is, we have family in Texas and want to know if we use their home address, assuming they agree, as our new address, will that suffice to begin the process to establish residency, i.e., get a drivers license, vehicle and voter registration etc. Am I missing something?

We would be spending our Winters in Texas and are planning to get a family doctor for our Winter stays to take care of annual medical check-ups etc.

Has anyone done that?

Thanks!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

As long as they are cool with the idea it should work fine.

Bob

[DKB_SATX]

I don't know what the specific residency requirements are, but there a few logistical details that occur to me.

Vehicle registration & inspection: You now have to get a vehicle inspection at a Texas inspection station not more than 60 days prior to the expiration date of your vehicle registration before you are allowed to renew your registration. There used to be a way to submit an affidavit that the vehicle was out of state and let you wait until 5 days after entering Texas with the vehicle to get your registration sticker before the inspection, but I don't know if that's still in effect or precisely how it works. It's intended for students and military personnel mainly. In certain counties of residence, you can only have your inspection done in another county with the same emissions regulations. E.g. if you register your vehicle in Tarrant County which has an emissions inspection, you can get an inspection in Dallas County or Travis County which have the same requirement, but not in Val Verde county (for example) that does not have the extra emissions inspection.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

By far the best way to do this is to go visit them at Christmas. Drive the vehicles all down when you do. Declare January 1st "Texas Day". Get the vehicle titles all moved over. Get new plates. Register to vote. Move the credit cards all down to the new address. See what happens to your cell plans when you move them down. Put in for mail forwarding from your old address. Close the old bank account and open a new "local" one maybe. Figure out doctors and health insurance. You are moving, you do the same things you would do any time you move. This is by no means a complete list....

Why do it January 1st? Taxes. It's easier to file taxes in one state for next year rather than filling in two states.

There *could* be weird issues with doing this. All of a sudden the relatives might seem to have twice as many people living at the address. That's unlikely to be an issue with the feds or with the state. It might trip over some stupid municipal or community rule. I suspect the relatives are aware of any community rules (property covenants). I have run into municipal stuff (sewer department ... who would have thought). They didn't block anything in the end, but they did ask some questions.

Bob

[Airtandem]

Check with ESCAPEES CLUB it is located in Livingston Texas and specializes in this, domaine, registration , mail etc.

MJ

[wareaglewalt]

When moving residence from Louisiana to Texas will we have to pay a sales tax when getting tags for our Airstream and Tundra? We had to pay 9.5% sales tax based on the value of our cars when we moved to Louisiana years back in order to get car tags.

[TexAirS]

You will paid 6.25 percent to register an out of state vehicle and trailer. And a few other fees. After that, the annual registration is online and the annual inspection is required three days after returning to the Great State of Texas. If you never return, you never need an inspection. Camp host at Rocky Knob CG has not been back in twelve years.

Try Escapees for residency and mail.

John

[TexAirS]

It's 6.25 percent to title, not register the out of state vehicle.

John

[mimiandrews]

It's easier to file taxes in one state for next year rather than filling in two states.

We Texans have no taxes to file. There is no state income tax in Texas, and any politician who proposes to enact one is quickly dis-elected.