Tax Q: Short term relocation to low-cost areas

[dandan14]

My wife and I are considering doing something a little unconventional. We're considering selling (or potentially renting out) our house and having several short-term (6 month-ish) living experiences around the country. I won't have any problem working remotely.

Does anyone know how this would work for state income taxes? Would we pay based on how many months we "lived" in a state? Or perhaps could we establish residency in a no-income-tax state like FL and then just "visit" other states.

Has anyone on the board ever done this?

[grabiner]

You have to check with each state. Many states will tax you as a resident if you lived in the state for a substantial part of the year (often 183 days) even if you have a permanent home elsewhere. In addition, your former state may still consider you to be domiciled there, and some states will tax you as a resident based on your domicile even if you were almost never there, while others will not.

Regardless of your state of residence, if you earn income in a state, you have to pay taxes on that income (with the exception of some neighboring states such as PA/NJ which don't tax each other's residents on salary).