Residency in Florida

[boblytle]

Being new to retirement, we will be living in Florida in our motor home for six months or more on an rv site we recently purchased in a resort. The title states it is a condominium. We plan on using this new address for our tax filings for 2012, and we have started getting such things as banking items using this new address. The utilities are in the HOA name.

Is it possible to get a drivers license and change our residency to Florida?

Any information would be helpful.

RAL

[jrwitt]

If you change your residence, be sure and register to vote in FL AND get Florida license plates for all you vehicles you will be taking to FL. When I lived in Florida (in the 70s) they had no personal state income tax. Not really sure if that is still true.

If you don't mind the high humidity and having to deal with hurricanes, Florida is a great place to live. I enjoyed the 8 years I lived there.

Are you keeping your old residence? It is OK with the IRS if you have two homes and a motorhome qualifies as a residence under most conditions. That means you can deduct personal property taxes (part of your auto registration) and interest on your motorhome loan on your federal income tax just like real estate taxes and mortgage interest on a stick built home. You can do this for both your primary and your second home. Maximum of 2 homes allowed.

Hope this helps.

[kaypsmith]

Yes you can change your current driver license to Florida dl. Also is still true, no state income tax, and tags are cheaper than most places, although, there is an impact fee for each vehicle when you change from another state plates. Not sure how much that is, but it is assessed on the basis of the value of the vehicle. Anyway, that is one thing to look out for.

Good luck,

Kay

[medico]

Since you purchased a site, no matter how it is listed, you can use that address as your permanent address for purposes of drivers license, registration, voting, etc. If you bought your coach less than 6 months ago and paid less than 6% sales tax, you will owe Florida some tax money. Also there is a one time "transfer" fee for Florida registrations that my neighbor told me yesterday cost him almost $1000 for his coach and toad. Yearly renewals are about $120 for him.

Without owning a Florida site, you can still change your "domicile" (residence is where ever you live, domicile is your official residence for all the purposes we are discussing here) if you have a mail forwarding service (we use St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs) you can use that just as easily as a physical address.