Are You or Should You Be a Florida Resident?

  We are migrating this blog to Facebook and our website.

Please visit www.facebook.com/senneysays and "Like" our page.
~Or~
Send your email address to: jsenney@pselaw.com to receive the latest blog by email.

Some of my clients who spend a lot of time in Florida have asked about what is required to become a Florida resident for tax purposes.  While there are many relevant factors that determine where someone resides for tax purposes, the most important factor is where you spend most of your time.  Generally, a person is considered as resident of whichever state he or she spends more than half the year.

But many people travel on business and pleasure and may not spend half the year in any one place. In these situations, the state of residency is determined by looking at where you spend the most time and by examining other factors. To support your Florida residency you and your spouse should do the following:

1.  Complete and file a Florida Residency Declaration.

2.  Apply for a Florida driver’s license.

3.  Register to vote in Florida.

4.  Become a member of a church in Florida.

5.  Join the Rotary club, Lions Club, Elks club or similar organization in Florida.

6.  Join a gym or YMCA or golf club in Florida.

7.  Get a library card from the local Florida library.

8.  Get a land line phone for your Florida house.

9.  Get a new cellphone with a Florida area code number.

10.  Register your cars in Florida and get Florida license plates.

11.  Change the billing address on all your credit cards to your Florida address.

12.  Establish personal bank account in Florida.

13.  If you are operating a Florida management company or other business that will provide services to a non-Florida operating company, set up a Florida bank account for the Florida management company.

14.  Set-up a website for the Florida management company and advertise it as providing sales and management consulting services.

15.  Do a Yellow Pages ad for the Florida management company and its business.

16.  Get some Florida management company business cards and stationary printed up.

17.  Develop a relationship with a Florida doctor and dentist.

18.  Use credit cards to pay for everything so you have a record of all the days you are in Florida.

19.  Consider having someone house sit your non-Florida house while you are in Florida (this is actually a good idea just for protection of the property, but it also makes it more credible that the non-Florida house is your vacation house and the Florida house is your principal residence).

20.  Consider putting the non-Florida house in a trust or family LLC to get it out of your name (this would negate the principal residence gain exclusion on sale of this house so need to think about this one).


Give me a call if you are interested in moving to Florida and becoming a Florida resident. We can help you with any questions you may have about the process. Jsenney@pselaw.com or 937-223-1130.


AND ONE MORE THING.  Sharon and I were co-hosts of the House of Bread Gala that was held Saturday August 10th at the Sinclair Ponitz Center. Dinner and drinks were excellent, visiting with old and new friends was great, and helping House of Bread collect over $30,000 was wonderful. Thank you to everyone that attended, donated  a silent auction prize, made a cash contribution or helped out in any other way.  Hope to see you all at next year's Gala.  For more information about the House of Bread, go to their website at  http://houseofbread.org/