I wonder how state residency is enforced. NY has very high state income tax and I'm thinking of getting an apartment there while keeping my house in another state - how do I make sure that I won't be counted as NY resident?
Don't get a NY state ID. You have to file paperwork to become an official citizen of New York (eg, your primary residence). My wife and I had to do this when I moved from Ohio to NY for university. Naturally, I'm not a lawyer/accountant/etc; contact a CPA for full information.
> Don't get a NY state ID. You have to file paperwork to become an official citizen of New York (eg, your primary residence).
I'd be surprised if NY was that lenient.
CA isn't. I know of cases where they went after folks who had no CA property and hadn't been in the state for months before receiving income that CA wanted to tax.
CA says that you're a resident after a small number of days for the purposes of car registration. I'd be surprised if they were more lenient when income was involved.
CA wants income taxes from folks who win money in golf tournaments or play professional sports a couple of times a year in CA.
Residency is tricky. There's an infamous case where >100% of an estate was owed in taxes because several states managed to claim that the deceased was a resident of their state for the purposes of taxation.
That is how I thought it usually works. When you start filing paperwork with the state, eg: getting a driver's license and renting, they try to tax you.
> When you start filing paperwork with the state, eg: getting a driver's license and renting
Renting doesn't involve filing paperwork with the state, at least not in the US. (FWIW, ownership does not establish residency - you can own property in a state where you're not a resident.)
My point is that states often think that you're a resident even if you haven't filed any paperwork with them. Yes, there are cases (such as driving or bringing a car into the state) where they penalize you for not filing paperwork, but in others, they just tax you.
Where you will run into trouble is with getting paid if you work for a company in New York. If you don't draw a paycheck from a company based in New York, or have anyone paying you so much that you file a 1040, there will probably be little way for them to catch on.
However if you get a driver's license or register your car there, then you may start getting snagged. If that happens you will be deep in see-a-CPA territory, since you'll need to prove that your primary residence really isn't in NY, and that you paid taxes on all of your income in another state, didn't earn any of it while working there, etc.
If you put down your New York address on any payroll forms though, it's pretty much all over. I have heard anecdotally they are extremely aggressive (and also don't have the rules against double-taxation) compared to other states.
Comments
I wonder how state residency is enforced. NY has very high state income tax and I'm thinking of getting an apartment there while keeping my house in another state - how do I make sure that I won't be counted as NY resident?
Don't get a NY state ID. You have to file paperwork to become an official citizen of New York (eg, your primary residence). My wife and I had to do this when I moved from Ohio to NY for university. Naturally, I'm not a lawyer/accountant/etc; contact a CPA for full information.
> Don't get a NY state ID. You have to file paperwork to become an official citizen of New York (eg, your primary residence).
I'd be surprised if NY was that lenient.
CA isn't. I know of cases where they went after folks who had no CA property and hadn't been in the state for months before receiving income that CA wanted to tax.
CA says that you're a resident after a small number of days for the purposes of car registration. I'd be surprised if they were more lenient when income was involved.
CA wants income taxes from folks who win money in golf tournaments or play professional sports a couple of times a year in CA.
Residency is tricky. There's an infamous case where >100% of an estate was owed in taxes because several states managed to claim that the deceased was a resident of their state for the purposes of taxation.
That is how I thought it usually works. When you start filing paperwork with the state, eg: getting a driver's license and renting, they try to tax you.
> When you start filing paperwork with the state, eg: getting a driver's license and renting
Renting doesn't involve filing paperwork with the state, at least not in the US. (FWIW, ownership does not establish residency - you can own property in a state where you're not a resident.)
My point is that states often think that you're a resident even if you haven't filed any paperwork with them. Yes, there are cases (such as driving or bringing a car into the state) where they penalize you for not filing paperwork, but in others, they just tax you.
Where you will run into trouble is with getting paid if you work for a company in New York. If you don't draw a paycheck from a company based in New York, or have anyone paying you so much that you file a 1040, there will probably be little way for them to catch on.
However if you get a driver's license or register your car there, then you may start getting snagged. If that happens you will be deep in see-a-CPA territory, since you'll need to prove that your primary residence really isn't in NY, and that you paid taxes on all of your income in another state, didn't earn any of it while working there, etc.
If you put down your New York address on any payroll forms though, it's pretty much all over. I have heard anecdotally they are extremely aggressive (and also don't have the rules against double-taxation) compared to other states.