Please Help me Pick a Domicile

[Brad]

My wife and I and 3 kids have been full time for a month and a half and will be traveling full time starting on August 7. Originally from MN, but are having troubles deciding whether Texas, Florida, or South Dakota will be best for us for our Domicile.

We are not retired, and will be working part time jobs as we travel the country.

We have 3 kids, one of which will be home schooled within the next few months.

We need nation wide health care.

 

Thank you

[SWharton]

You might want to make contact with xscapers.com. They will probably have better answers. Generally, where you can get health care is your best bet for domicile.

[sandsys]

The last I heard Florida is best for portable health care and Texas is good for homeschooling. Like most things with the lifestyle, everything requires compromise. Only you can determine what's best for you. There are so many issues that can affect one person that another might never consider. I wish you well with your search and decision.

Linda

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums!

As one who retired prior to begining our fulltime life, I don't have a great deal of information to share with you but I do suggest that you take some time to read Health Insurance Options for the Self Employed RVer on the Xscapers part of the Escapee website. If you read the entire article it gets inot the issue of domicile and the impact that it has on health insurance coverages and costs.

[FL-JOE]

The first thing that came to mind for me after reading your post was tax liability.  You two are obviously not seniors and if you are still working, either part time or full time, then having domicile and filing taxes in a state that has no state income tax would be huge.  Several states don't have income tax, one being Florida of course.

Can't help you with health care questions.  For Florida you RV and auto insurance will be a little more than most states but your annual registration fees will be less than most.  

[ToddF]

With 3 children and part-time work, your income tax liability may be very low to zero. But you will most likely have to file in any state from which you have a W2.

What was your health insurance situation in MN prior to making the switch?

I travel only a few months per year but decided to sign up for "dial care" which I can use nationwide in conjunction with my short term (3 years) health care policy that became an option on 10-1-18. It is low cost and gets me "in" if I need services and the negotiated rates versus list price. I am happy with it, through United Healthcare.

My former coverage through Health Partners was very limited when traveling, and even in MN when I needed to see a dermatologist, they said 6 months wait, so I found my own and only 2 week wait and he was great. 

 

[Kirk W]

Quote

The first thing that came to mind for me after reading your post was tax liability. 

None of the three states mentioned (Fl, TX, or SD) have any state income tax. 

[Twotoes]

You will owe income tax in any State you receive income in regardless of where you domicle. As Kirk already stated all three States, FL, SD and TX do not have State income tax but unlike FL-Joes statement you will have to file a return in any State where you earn income regardless of where you choose to Domicle. I don’t know anything about FL or TX but in SD there are not many health insurance options for anyone under 65 not on Medicare. 

[Sehc]

You do have to file income taxes if you earn any income in a taxed state. They do come after you. Another thing, every state has expenses and must collect taxes. The ones with no income tax get it someplace else. As example, check the initial title and registration costs in Florida.

[FL-JOE]

2 hours ago, Twotoes said:

You will owe income tax in any State you receive income in regardless of where you domicle. As Kirk already stated all three States, FL, SD and TX do not have State income tax but unlike FL-Joes statement you will have to file a return in any State where you earn income regardless of where you choose to Domicle. I don’t know anything about FL or TX but in SD there are not many health insurance options for anyone under 65 not on Medicare. 

Where you domicile is where you will file your federal income tax return.  If you have wages or earned income in that state then you will also be filing the state returns, thus if that state has a state income tax you will pay that.  

Now if you have been traveling outside of your domicile state all year and had wages paid to you in 10 other states, then you of course would be paying their state income tax if they have it.

If it were me I would try to workcamp and/or work for cash if I was traveling in numerous states all year earning income, avoiding a nightmare at tax time.

[Sehc]

If you domicile in NJ,  you will pay NJ income tax on money earned in other states, except a few with reciprocal agreements. This is also true in states other than NJ.

[Twotoes]

 I would not do as FL-Joe has suggested and work camp or work for cash because if you don’t report your cash earnings you would be committing tax fraud. Workcamping is not the same as volunteering. I’m surprised someone would even suggest that. 

[kb0zke]

We're SD residents and do some work with our church group, Laborers For Christ. When we work for Laborers, we are paid minimum wage for that State and, of course, have to file a State tax return there. When we work in a State with no income tax, we pay no tax to that State, such as when we worked in Texas. When we work in a State with an income tax, we pay their income tax to them. Our work is long enough that we never hit more than one State tax in any one year, so it isn't all that much of a pain (other than last year when it cost is $40 to file to get an $8 refund). Oh well.

You should probably be members of HSLDA and learn what the homeschool laws are in each State. It might be that you will want to visit certain States only during the summer or only for very brief periods of time. Our children are now starting to homeschool their children, so it has been a while since we had to know anything about homeschooling laws.

You may want to check out some of the Christian sharing outfits, like Medi-Share. One of them may suit your needs.

As you have already been told, there are lots of compromises here, and what suits one family won't suit another. You may end up just making a spreadsheet, listing all of the costs (health insurance, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance, etc.) and then figure out the total for each State and go with the one that is lowest.