Assessment town tax when full time

[norsea]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

The Postal Mail Box is at a street address, though, isn't it? As in: PMB#, Street Address, City, State, Zip. If so, then you have a street address, the physical address where the mailbox is located. That street address— not the postal mailbox itself— is effectively your domicile. That is exactly the loophole that full-timers can exploit to establish a domicile without owning or renting real estate.

A mail box is just that, a place where you collect your mail. It has nothing to do with a domicile. Our domicile is our silver twinkie. There is nothing that says a mail box is your domicile; if there was there are an awful lot of PO Boxes that would be very crowed in places where the US Postal service does not offer "home delivery"; this is why people have PO Boxes. There is no loophole. Nothing is being "exploited".

Originally Posted by Protagonist

However, in order to even get the Postal Mail Box in the first place, you had to list a domicile address on the PS Form 1583 "Application for Delivery of Mail through Agent" (Box 7a, Applicant Home Address). Getting the mailbox did not make it your domicile. Unless you filed a new application, as far as the Post Office is concerned, the address in Box 7a is still your domicile.

I really don't want to sound belligerent here but what you put on the form has nothing to do with domicile. This was never an issue until after 9/11 when the Feds decided that they were going to stop people from being able to live anonymously. Fat chance. It's really a joke. Every person who is full time in their RV or Boat fills out the form with an address and submits it and gets their post office box. More often than not the address is that of a family member and is perfectly acceptable to the feds. Much ado about nothing.

Originally Posted by Protagonist

You will not find one all-encompassing law that says you must maintain a physial address as a domicile, but there are several laws related to domiciles. Each state has its own residency requirements, and its own laws as to exactly what constitutes domicile and residency. At last count, 28 states had their own specific legal definition of a domicile; others have specific definitions of residency instead. Each Federal agency that deals with issues of domiciles and residency will have its own regulations as well. You're welcome to Google your state's requirements, but I doubt you'll find a nice, neat table that lists domicile requirements for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. When I considered full-timing on a boat, I concentrated on Texas and Florida, two no-tax states with marinas that I could use to establish residency, and they were quite similar.

Well, based on our experience of being full time travelers, both inside the US of A (5 years) and outside of it (7 years) there is not much of an issue.

When out of the country we used a post office box for our mailing address and that is what was used on our fed/state taxes. Lots of folks in this here country have postal address that are box numbers simply because the US Postal service does not deliver mail to the area they are in. And, there is no requirement that you have a PO Box in a Federal Post Office to receive your US Mail.

We are full time RV'ers. As a result our "domicile" is our silver twinkle. Wherever it is parked is where our domicile is physically located but this has nothing to do with our domicile from a federal or state standpoint. Our attorney says so, our account says so and so have two state governments as well as the feds.

The feds do nothing to specify requirements for residence. The states, on the other hand, do specify their requirements for residence; the feds accept whatever state you claim as your state of residence. In some cases residency takes time; Washington requires 6 months and utility company receipts as documentation. South Dakota is at the other end of the spectrum; prove that you have spent one night in the state (h/motel/campground receipt will suffice) and you are eligible to be a resident; you take the receipt to the SD DMV and get your drivers license and then go to the county tax collectors officer and register your vehicles. All perfectly legal. The address you use for your DL and vehicles is that of a mail forwarding service. Perfectly legal in SD. Similar processes exist for other states. It is just a matter of doing the research to learn what each state requires. SD is popular because there is no state income tax, inheritance tax or community property (well the last one might not be high on everyone list :-) )

One can own property in any state that one desires. This has nothing to do with being a resident of that state. In the case of California, one can be a resident in another state and spend up to six months in California annually, no fuss, no muss. But, stay more than six months and by law you are automatically a resident of the state and must register your vehicles and get a CA drivers license, and of course, file and pay state income taxes.

Most states process voting applications by way of drivers license applications. Very simple process.

We own property in two states and are not residents in either. Keep in mind that owning property has nothing to do with residency. If if did, all those folks renting homes/apartments/anything to live in would not have a residence.

Jim