Domicile for Part-timer

[Rob]

I am retiring with a pension within the next year.  My plan is to get a 5th wheel, travel part-time and work part-time in Missouri. This all going to be new to me. My problem is how easy or complicated will it be to setup up a domicile and which state will be best for drawing my pension?  Any and all tips would be helpful.

[sandsys]

Since you will be regularly living and working in Missouri I think that will need to be your domicile. You can get a mail forwarding service anywhere without changing your domicile. Where will you live while working? In an RV park for an extended stay? If so, can you use them for your legal address--things that have to be mailed to your domicile address? Or will you have a sticks and bricks that you return to after each trip? If the latter then everything becomes much easier.

Linda Sand

[Rob]

Yes, the latter is more on the line of what we're thinking.  From everything I've been reading, this seems to be what we will be doing.  Also, I think I should get with my Tax/CPA person and discuss what we are trying to do here as well.  I've been researching for a couple of years now and it's getting down to the wire of what I will need to do.  This seems to be the area I need to focus and did not realize how much I still don't know yet.  Thanks for your help!

[Kirk W]

Your domicile is already set up and since you presently live there and plan to continue to do so and to be employed there, nothing will change. Domicile is a legal issue and yours is quite clear.

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Domicile

Someone's true, principal, and permanent home.  In other words, the place where a person has physically lived, regards as home, and intends to return even if currently residing elsewhere.

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If you check the laws of MO you will find that you have no other legal option since the state requires that someone employed and living there be a resident for all tax purposes. 

[Rob]

Yes, I am just now starting to understand the domicile issue and have so much to learn before taking this journey.  I am glad I started asking questions now.  Still have a little over a year until we make this happen.  Thanks for your expertise.

[Kirk W]

Domicile really isn't an issue for those of us who only travel part-time. Where it becomes a problem is if you sell everything and live in an RV, never staying in one location for very long. In such case, there are many states that do not allow the use of a mail forwarding service as your legal residence and that creates a problem for fulltimers.  But being a fulltimer means that you could make your base pretty much anywhere you choose as long as you do what is needed to end your domicile in one state and establish it in another. You might find it helpful if you read this article about selecting a domicile, just to clear things up for you.  What we do now that we have a home-base again is that all of our domicile ties are in that area and our mail is delivered to us at that address. When we travel for several months at a time we just go to the post office and put in a temporary forwarding order to have mail sent to the address of our Escapee mail service. You can have a temporary forwarding for as long as 6 months and then Escapees send our mail to us wherever we are when we request it. We have most business mail sent by email so there isn't a great deal of paper mail to forward. Each time we return to base we cancel the forwarding order at the post office and then put in a new one just before leaving for our next trip. 

[Alice]

Rob, are you in Missouri now and are you going to be retiring from the state?  If so, turns out Missouri doesn't tax our pensions unless you are drawing a whole lot more than I will be.  You should make a MOSERS appointment if you are a state worker and talk to them.  They'll still tax your part-time earnings, of course, but not your pension.

If you still live and work (even part time) in Missouri, Missouri will be your domicile.   (There are the odd legal exceptions, but I doubt you'll fit into those.)

[Rob]

Alice, my pension will be coming from the painters union.  I guess I'm going to get some advice from my tax/cpa person as well.  Just trying to figure out what I will need to do before I start drawing it.  So far it seems as though we may be moving to another state.  Thanks for the information.  Every little bit helps.