[Keverw]

Yep, I heard of this too. The guy who helped invent the processor moved to Nevada to an apartment, and California tried to say that an apartment isn't a permanent residence and stalked the guy even sending state employees to dig through his trash. He ended up suing California in Nevada and a judge ordered the state to pay him a lot of money, but the state found a loop hole to wiggle out of paying what the judge ordered.

New York is supposed to be very aggressive too. So say you left New York and left items in storage, the state might say you never left.

Same with going to college or the military, you are still considered a resident of your last state since it's assumed your heading back home after college and during the summer breaks, unless you decide to live and stay where you go to college after instead of returning home then you'd need to take steps to change your domicile and move your stuff. One of the reasons you don't have to change your license after 30 or so days, same as someone on vacation since they intend to return home and not living where you are visiting.

I know digital nomads and full time RVers run into this issue, since you are technically homeless for living in a vehicle but still need a driver license and registration somewhere, but a few states are friendly to full time RVers, with South Dakota being the easiest to setup domicile where they only require you to rent a PMB and spend a night at a hotel or campground but all about intent. Some states won't help you unless multiple proofs or you get assistant from a homeless shelter. So if you retired buying a half a million dollar RV, the state considers you the same as a homeless person living on a park bench even if you don't consider yourself homeless.

So you should sell your house, take all your stuff but if you want to keep it in storage rent storage in your new state, update bank to the new state if it's a national bank - if it's a local only bank or credit union need to close your account, update your will for the new state, cancel or switch gym membership if a national gym (like planet fitness, change your home club to your new state) and other steps. Then estate taxes too. I know I was reading once some man who lived in NJ rented a locker in NY and New York decided he was a resident because of that. Then some places will claim you as resident based on where you purchase a grave plot. Seems like this stuff can be tricky, especially the richer you are. I know rich people with multiple homes, domicile issues seem big, but even people who live in RVs have to plan for this. For example recently President Trump declared Florida as his domicile instead of Florida since he owns properties in both states.

Most people only have one house, so that's both their domicile and residence. Then if you are famous, your family get to profit from your likeness when you die, so say you were Elvis, and courts ruled that's based on the state you were domiciled in. Tennessee for example is much more protective and allows family to profit the longest compared to other states, as remember reading someone died and family was trying to argue if they were really a Tennessee or California resident.

So domicile is based on both intent and action. Kinda interesting someone who lives in a RV has to understand and do the same legal steps as a multi-millionaire with multiple houses, but I guess they never considered people would live in RVs, or work remotely traveling. Probably Americans working and living overseas is a minority too, but some states like California don't want to let their residents go. I know someone in a RV group posted they left South Carolina to retire and RV full time seeing the country, and haven't been back to SC for over a year, and the state still wanted to tax them over 6,000 and they charge property taxes on vehicles. Then VA considers a RV a luxury and taxes them extra compared to cars even if your RV is your home. Then someone from Michigan didn't want to change states to one of the friendlier ones, so rented a mailbox and changed his license online, later to get a threatening letter from the DMV since they didn't consider it a valid address, leaving them the option of switching states or using a friend or relatives address. Then I guess after a full time RVer switches domicile, then legally they are just on a long vacation since SD says you have to return once every 5 years.