Florida vs Texas for tax benefits

[JKThreeEleven17]

Rehashing an old thread here but I was wondering if someone could help me out... I was just in Florida for 6 months and I have a license (and registered to vote there) and my car registered in Florida. Now I'm in Texas for Primary and I'm trying to figure out how to renew or change the address on my ID without losing 'residency' for tax purposes. Any advice? Thanks.

edit: (addition)
What I'm looking for is some certainty as to whether I need a PO Box or can I put the courthouse address (heard that one) or do I just contact them and explain the situation since I'm sure they deal with it all the time??

 

[Brunes]

Just contact the local tax collectors office- They'll set you up with your out of state info on your id and everything.

 

[Tom]

Just search for the automated system phone number on the internet for the Florida driver's license renewal center. I did the same thing (move from Florida to Texas), called the number, spent 20 bucks and 20 minutes and whammy, Florida driver's license with a Texas address.

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

Choose Florida! The best doggone state in the Union.

The only drawback of having Florida residence in the Pensacola area is the auto insurance is a bit higher than probably say places like Corpus I would imagine.

I remember State Farm saying my insurance would be much higher since Pensacola is so close to Alabama and there are a bunch of old timers around here etc etc.

Also Florida has sweet license plates.

-Not So Humble Floridian

 

[scoolbubba]

between the two, I think the insurance is damn near identical on my truck. SPID was full of uninsured motorists driving 95 on the shoulder. East Alabama had a bunch of uninsured motorists driving 95 over the bridges. 6 in one, half a dozen the other.

 

[puck_11]

The only drawback of having Florida residence in the Pensacola area is the auto insurance is a bit higher than probably say places like Corpus I would imagine.

I remember State Farm saying my insurance would be much higher since Pensacola is so close to Alabama and there are a bunch of old timers around here etc etc.

Not exactly. My renters and car insurance went up when I went to Corpus and my motorcycle insurance went WAY up. Like schoolbubba said, there are a lot of uninsured drivers in south Texas.

 

[Raptor2216]

Or collecting 10+ years of per diem...zinger! whoah! Declare Florida as your residence. There are numerous ways to establish residency ranging anywhere from having a connection to the place, intent, actually there, etc. I rec FL. Another nice thing about Florida is the exemption from sales and useage tax on vehicle purchases outside FL, when you are not living in FL, and you register and title in FL. FL you can't go wrong.

Dammit, I wish I had known that about two months ago! I had to shell out 2K in taxes.

 

[The Chief]

between the two ...

Insurance is not based on where your car is registered, rather where it is normally garaged. Example: Your 'Vette is registered in Florida, you go to school in Mass and take your car, the ultra-high insurance rates in Mass apply, if your insurance company actually still sells insurance in MASS. Some do not, i.e., GEICO does not because of the Democratic nature of MASS.

Maryland has no sales tax on autos, only excise tax. Ergo, if you buy that new ZR1 'vette in Maryland, pay MD excise taxes (6% last check), drive it to Florida to re-registered it, Florida is gonna make you pay sales tax on the car. All states are different, check FS 212.06(7). Of course you being AD, you can register your car anywhere you please. Registration from MD; DL from Florida - no problem with your AD ID Card.

Most all states need $$$ and are cracking down. California FTB is currently set to make all AD folks that live in CA that claim resisency outside CA and pay no taxes, to declare a domocile, under penalty of perjury. in what state they are domociled. FTB will follow-up with that declared state.

For so many years the issue was trivial, IMO it is no longer. Not to scare anyone, just be careful and be in the know.

 

[scoolbubba]

Insurance is not based on where your car is registered, rather where it is normally garaged. Example: Your 'Vette is registered in Florida, you go to school in Mass and take your car, the ultra-high insurance rates in Mass apply, if your insurance company actually still sells insurance in MASS. Some do not, i.e., GEICO does not because of the Democratic nature of MASS.

Right. Everytime I PCS, I spend about half an hour on the phone updating all my addresses with USAA as far as Renters/Valuable Property/Auto insurance go. Good thing they're nice people.

 

[RHPF]

Right. Everytime I PCS, I spend about half an hour on the phone updating all my addresses with USAA as far as Renters/Valuable Property/Auto insurance go. Good thing they're nice people.

As my roommate pointed out, you can do it online. In the insurance tab on the right bar there is an 'update address' field (or similiar). I used it for the latest move without any issues and they re-did my premiums.

 

[a2b2c3]

And for what its worth moving from Kingsville to Lemoore sucks. My rates doubled. And here I thought north Mexico's drivers were supposed to be the worst...

 

[MasterBates]

No, you are paying the socialism tax on top of it now.

 

[Jim123]

Also Florida has sweet license plates.

Oh, for a second you meant the northwest FL/lower AL hand-written-in-sharpie "TAG APPLIED FOR" piece-of-paper-in-back-window. Too bad those aren't legal on base, I could save a bunch of $$.

 

[Fog]

FWIW, while FL has no state income tax (like TX), its property tax rates on homeowners are high (compared to other southern states, but well less than the NE or CA). TX, on the other hand, has oil $$, relatively lower homeowner insurance rates (i.e., fewer hurricanes except for coastal areas) & other sources of state revenues that usually make gouging homeowners unnecessary. For long-term purposes, I'd carefully examine the entire cost of state residence in either place. I chose Pensacola for retirement because of Naval Air & my daughters & grandchildren living here. Little did I know beforehand (my bad) that property tax & homeowner insurance rates well wipe-out any advantage offered by the lack of a state personal (or corporate) income tax.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Insurance is not based on where your car is registered, rather where it is normally garaged. Example: Your 'Vette is registered in Florida, you go to school in Mass and take your car, the ultra-high insurance rates in Mass apply, if your insurance company actually still sells insurance in MASS. Some do not, i.e., GEICO does not because of the Democratic nature of MASS.

Maryland has no sales tax on autos, only excise tax. Ergo, if you buy that new ZR1 'vette in Maryland, pay MD excise taxes (6% last check), drive it to Florida to re-registered it, Florida is gonna make you pay sales tax on the car. All states are different, check FS 212.06(7). Of course you being AD, you can register your car anywhere you please. Registration from MD; DL from Florida - no problem with your AD ID Card.

Most all states need $$$ and are cracking down. California FTB is currently set to make all AD folks that live in CA that claim resisency outside CA and pay no taxes, to declare a domocile, under penalty of perjury. in what state they are domociled. FTB will follow-up with that declared state.

For so many years the issue was trivial, IMO it is no longer. Not to scare anyone, just be careful and be in the know.

Partly true. FL will charge you the difference in sales tax, but only if you had been operating the car out of the state for less than 6 months. Case in point: I bought my car in MD in Dec 2007, but I moved to FL in Oct 2008. I did not have to pay any sales tax in FL when I registered my car there. They told me had I bought my car after April I would have had to pay tax difference. Since in Escambia County the tax is 7.5% and I had paid 5% in MD (this was before they changed the tax to 6% in the beginning of 2008) I would have owed 2.5%, but it was moot since I had the car more than 6 months. Basically they're trying to prevent people from buying cars in places with lower sales taxes and then immediately moving them to places with higher taxes.