The wife and I are going fulltiming next spring. I am researching what state we want to change our residency to. I am looking at Florida, Texas or South Dakota. Any thoughts on these states?
South Dakota is our pic since it has some of the lowest insurance rates in the country, along with no income tax and no requirement of a physical residency to register vehicles. There are also full-timer support folks there.
I would pick South Dakota since it has a smaller population and while cold in the winter it is usually very livable. Florida is too hot in the summer and crowded. It is also expensive. Texas is also hot in the summer and has a lot of fleas if you have pets. It is less expensiive than Forida.
If you are just establishing a state of residence and not planning on living there, then Florida beats the other two hands down, IMHO. If you plan on living in the state then I would look at Texas and join the Escapees RV club in the hill country, where the weather is better and they have their own enclave with homesites. We tried the South Dakota thing and we're not pleased with everything, including some of their laws and taxes, so we reverted back to Florida and are saving money. Florida has the same mail order address set up as SD so you don't have to live there and also, it is a very LLC friendly state so that if you wish, you can have a Montana LLC and not worry about the tax man, as some states are now doing. You need to lay out your life and finances, then plug them into each of the 3 states and pick the one that fits your status the best.
Bob & Betsy - USN Ret'd '78 & FL LEO Ret'd '03 FMCA #F203528 '05 HR Endeavor, 40PRQ w/400 Cummins - With -'05 GMC Sierra LT, CC Z-71, the pusher '07 Arctic Cat 500A & Wilderness Kayak, riding in the pusher - Our Current Location
Everyone's situation is different. I went with SD due to no income tax, only 3% excise tax when purchasing vehicles instead of 6-8% sales tax in other states (saved me thousands on the rig and new toad). Also registering vehicles is cheap - about $300 for rig and toad.
I wasn't interested in going the LLC route. Only been there one day and that was to get my driver license.
* This post was
edited 07/22/08 01:30pm by tkcas01 *
Working out of my roaming home office... (currently here)
I have been a residence of South Dakota for the last two year. The people and the state have been super. I recommend going with mydakotaaddress in Madison, SD. Terri has been outstanding. Call her at 1-866-202-2163 or go online www.mydakotaaddress.com Your friend Houston
We have an office in Florida so we have our home base there. The taxes are higher if you buy an RV there, but the registration fees are low and there's no income tax, etc.
As was suggested above, look into each of the states, what their taxes are, etc. and plug in numbers to fit your particular case and see when works the best.
John Ewing
2007 Allegro Bus 42QRP ("TisIt")
2005 Sportster/HydraLift ("Dinky")
2002 Miata toad ("Mellow Yellow") www.jandse.com
FMCA 104106
What goes around comes around - always treat others the way you'd like them to treat you.
We too like Escapees RV Club as the very best and the only complete support system for full-time RV people. There just isn't anything like it. Mail service and a legal address are only a small part of what Escapees has to offer. In-expensive RV sites in any of 19 different Escapee RV parks is another and to be a part of the greatest RV group there is. Then there is the magazine that they publish, the discount RV parks, the members who own real estate that they allow other members to spend a night on, and many other things far beyond just mail service.
When you do consider a state to call your home, consider much more that just taxes and fees. What of the property laws, the laws about estates and wills, voting, jury service and many other things. Many people make it a simple thing, and when problems arise discover that it would have been wise to study things just a little more.
Those are the really popular choices for FT, but as Kirk said, there is more to residency than just saving a few bucks on registrations. This has been discussed many times here. I'd use the search function and key in words such as; residency, mail forwarding, registration, driver's license, smog checks, taxes, etc. for a more complete picture of what you will be facing. If you do your research now, it'll be easier when the time comes.
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