Residency choices

[57Wanderer]

We will be early retirees in a few months, and plan to get out there full-time in our trailer, and have lots of questions for the forum. We are interested in how you have managed your choices regarding:

1. State residency (which ones and why?)

2. Mail Delivery (how and why? Escapees? Digital mailbox services?)

3. Health insurance that works in all the states?

4. Driver's Licenses (are there advantages to any state in particular that we should know about?)

Any and all advice is welcome, and thank you in advance. Susan and Michael

[flamingoroad]

The primary domicile states for full-time domicile are FL, TX and SD. RV friendly and no state income tax. Escapees can help,with advice on establishing domicile and have mail forwarding services in each state. FL appears to be one of the few remaining states that offer national PPO plans under the ACA. However, the plans depend on the county that you domicile in. Lots of information on healthcare in various blogs. Choose a state that allows DL renewals by mail, like FL.

[kb0zke]

Welcome, 57Wanderer! We went through the same questions a few years ago. As flamingoroad said, the top three States for full-timers are Florida, South Dakota, and Texas. We eventually chose SD over Texas for our State, but it was close. Florida was never part of the mix for us, simply because it was too far away. What tipped the balance to SD over TX is that SD has no vehicle inspection requirements, and TX does.

All three States have several mail services, so if you really want to get picky you can get that information and factor it into your decision process first, or you can do as we did and decide the State first, then pick the mail service that best fits your needs.

We're on Medicare, so the insurance question didn't affect us. If you are fairly close to Medicare you can probably keep your present insurance for a while and then go on Medicare. That's a question for your current carrier, though.

SD doesn't have any particular issues about what you are driving, while TX has some issues if your GCWR is over a certain amount (I think 26,000 pounds).

FWIW, we were in OK when our MO registration on our Foretravel was about to run out. We were able to register my mail in SD. Our Jeep still had a year to go, so we elected to not change it at that time. In hindsight, we probably should have. There were NO problems with not switching then, and we saved $25, but if we had been questioned I suspect that the cost would have been more than the $25 we saved.

[DreamStreamr]

We didn't want to give up our NC residency, and saw no real benefit. There are a few serious pitfalls of trying to renege on residency, some states handle it poorly. We've handled mail forwarding in every other week batches for over nine years through Escapees. Health care hasn't been an issue anywhere in the country, more info at our web site dreamstreamr.com

Any way we can help, pls email us thru our web site.

[AnnArborBob]

Here is an interesting article by an experienced RV'er about this issue. I hope you find something useful in it!

http://www.rv-dreams.com/home-base-selection.html

[arwebbwind]

We to are in the planning stages of early retirement and full timing is one of the things we are pondering. Have subscribed to this thread and hope to learn more. Residency is probably my biggest concern. We are in CA and state taxes are a consideration.

[DreamStreamr]

Consider which of state's taxes are concerns and weigh them individually. It was informative for us. Income tax didn't matter because our income would be so low for >15 years, from the time we retired until we started social security or required distributions. Property tax was minimal and declining with the depreciating value of our two assets, the Airstream and truck. Tag fees for the same two vehicles are nominal. Sales tax is mostly irrelevant if you're a traveler, you pay the applicable sales tax only for your location at the sale. I think those cover the state taxes we considered. Other ones?

[AnnArborBob]

Just be careful if you have relatively high income and presently live in a state with relatively high income taxes such as California, New York or Minnesota (these are only examples, there are other states that fall into this category.) A lot of out-of-state "moves" by retirees are shams to avoid paying income taxes or sales taxes on high end RVs and those high tax states know it. Often they will go after someone who has allegedly moved to a low tax state claiming that the move was bogus and hit them with a bill for taxes, penalties and interest. It will then be incumbent on the taxpayer to demonstrate that the change in domicile was legitimate and for other than purely tax reasons. Know that mounting such a defense can be tricky, time consuming and expensive. There are plenty of articles about this that can be found by using a search engine.

Of course, if your income is too low to make it worthwhile for a state to pursue you they likely won't. But then again, if your income is low, there wouldn't be much incentive to make a fake move just to avoid taxes in the first place.

[NCMEDIC]

The problem with NC is that they tax SS, pension and 401k distributions. Texas doesn't. As a future full timer, I can find no benefit for paying NC taxes when I don't have to do so.

[Mollysdad]

Don't forget voting. You'll want to return to your home state to vote.
As far as healthcare, I don't think it's any different than living in a house and taking a vacation to another state.

I second the recommendation of picking a state with no income tax.

MY big concern would be doctor's visits and prescriptions. I get prescriptions by mail, and I'm not sure how they'd react to forwarding medicine. My doctor is a stickler on seeing me every few months.

I've tried to do auto-pay or online billing and paperless notifications wherever possible.

[NCMEDIC]

That's one of my chief concerns as well. Right now, we're planning to just swing through this area every 4-6 months and knock out all the doctor appointments while we're here.

[DreamStreamr]

NC adopted tax reforms in 2013 that, among other changes, eliminated taxing SS. Only fourteen states tax SS, NC not one of them. Yes, IRA, 401, and pensions are taxed, but reasonable since they went in untaxed (except for Roth IRA which isn't taxed on distribution.)

Decent article here http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/retire...rth%20Carolina