Hi, I'm Bette Hochberger, CPA, CJMA, and today I will talk about how not to screw up your relocation to Florida. There have been a lot of people moving here in the last couple of years, and there are so many reasons to live here! It's such a great place, but especially during the pandemic, there's been a big influx of people.

I talk to people all the time about why they're moving, what they need to do to move, and how to do it the right way and not screw it up because, most likely, you have a large financial situation that is part of the reason. I'm not going to say it's everybody, but usually, there's a financial incentive for people to move to Florida if they still need to be retired.

For those who don't know, Florida has no state income tax, so living here is so popular. We get a lot of people coming from up North, especially New York. Also, some people from out West, like California, these higher-income tax states. It seems all you have to do is pick up and leave, and boom, you’re a Florida resident. You’re here, everything is great, and you feel like you’ll never have to pay taxes again.

Well, part of the issue is that there are quite a few steps that you need to take to remove your domicile from your old state and become domiciled in Florida. I usually tell people that Florida doesn't care that you're here. Not that we don't love you or want you to be here, but we don't have an income tax trying to get claws into your wallet and take your money. So in that regard, Florida doesn't care if you're domiciled here. There are other reasons that you want to be domiciled here.

For example, if you buy a primary residence, you’ll want it homesteaded. The state you're leaving is where you need to be not domiciled any longer. Some places like New York have a declaration of non-domicile that says, I'm leaving, I'm done. You need to take so many steps to not screw up this new Florida residency of yours, so we're going to go through a couple of what those things are. This is not an exhaustive list. This will not be an ironclad case that says, no way are you still subject to taxes in your old state, but this is a minimum that you should be doing to ensure you're domiciled in Florida.

First things first, driver's license. You must move your driver's license from your old state to Florida. If you're still in the system of your old state, it's really hard for you to go then, "Oh yeah, by the way, I moved. I never updated my driver's license. And oh yeah, I don't live there. I don't want to pay taxes anymore." That's probably the first thing you should move. Then along with that, your automobile registration. You want to get everything that ties you to that state severed and moved to Florida. Along that same line, voter registration. You want to be on the rolls in your new state of Florida.

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