Domicile-Residence-Taxes December 27, 2008, 11:58:28 am Yahoo Message Number: 98175Don:Be sure to check the AL tax laws with respect to real estate sales...in ME there is this "little" tax that nonresidents pay on the sale of real estate...so if we were to establish a legal domicile in another state before we sell our condo in ME, we would be subject to that tax.Also, if we were to buy another residence in addition to our ME residence and claim another state's legal domicile, we would need to be mindful of how much time we spend in ME (or anywhere else)...we need to be out of ME for 181 days in order to not be eligible for income tax (never mind what any other state might levy).We have noticed that ME...because we read the Portland paper daily...has become aggressive in taxing folks who use out of state mail services, etc., but otherwise appear to live in the state (merchant mariners are prime examples...and there was a recent case decided against a mariner on this very point). As revenues decline across the board, eyes that may have once winked are now wide open...so in addition to all the good info Linda Hilton provided and others may include, you need to search aggressively on matters of AL taxes.TinaP 2006 MB "Wild Thing" Resting in Windy Las Cruces, NM
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #1 – December 27, 2008, 12:48:35 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98177QuoteWe have noticed that ME...because we read the Portland paper daily...has become aggressive in taxing folks who use out of state mail services, etc., but otherwise appear to live in the state (merchant mariners are prime examples...and there was a recent case decided against a mariner on this very point). This is a very important point and reinforces what I said in my previous post. If one is NOT a fulltime RVer and actually lives...and maybe even works...in a particular state, then you need to do everything in that state...i.e., register vehicles, get driver's licenses, PAY ANY TAXES/FEES DUE, etc. Trying to evade taxes in the state where you live by registering vehicles in another state (unless those vehicles always remain in the second state and never set a tire into the state where you live) is a sure recipe for disaster! Several years back, there were many Washingtonians who would go to Oregon to buy vehicles because Oregon doesn't have a sales tax. Instead of paying Washington taxes on their Oregon purchases...and getting the vehicles licensed in Washington as they should have, they didn't pay any sales tax and licensed their new vehicle in Oregon...with the help of the dealers. Well, the dealers and the Washington residents got caught and I know of one case where the Washington resident ended up paying several hundred thousand dollars in sales tax, vehicle registration fees, and I'm sure, in penalties for trying to bilk Washington out of their rightful taxes and fees. They're probably lucky they didn't get thrown in the slammer!Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #2 – December 27, 2008, 01:01:15 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98178from my experience with alabama. I have a fl address and license but work as a otr driver in alabama. my car is setting in company yard over the 180 day limit so it is tagged and insured in alabama. But as I said my tax home is in florida even though I do have a place in alabama. Another driver has a home in missouri and alabama and her car is tagged and insured in alabama but licensed in missouri. Alabama license branch told her she didn't have to change her license as long as she had a residence in missouri. As for taxes go what residence address you use for your place of employment and for tax returns is your tax home. I have fed and no state tax come out of my check as fl has no state tax. the other driver had missouri taxes taken out last year but since al. tax is lower she is claiming alabama as tax home this year but cdl licensed in missouri til they come due and al. said that was acceptable.
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #3 – December 27, 2008, 02:36:05 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98180Quote From: Linda & Earl Hylton To: lifewithalazydazerv@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 10:48 AM Subject: [LD] Re: Domicile-Residence-TaxesTrying to evade taxes in the state where you live by registering vehicles in another state (unless those vehicles always remain in the second state and never set a tire into the state where you live) is a sure recipe for disaster!Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/Linda, I agree, though there is an exeption. It IS possible to live in one state, say CA (one of the more voracious tax-grabbing states), yet have a car "based" in another state, say Nevada, and still be able to drive that car back into CA without incurring tax obligation to CA. To do so, one has to have some sort of address in the non-resident state and a legitimate reason for basing the vehicle there. In my case, I lived in California and kept a car in my Nevada airplane hangar for use when flying into NV. Nevada DMV had no problem with that and California never questioned it. As long as the car "lived" in Nevada *and* had insurance through a Nevada insurance agent (required by NV DMV), all was fine.bumper a NV resident, TG . . . I heard more than 140,000 have bailed from CA in the past year . . .
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #4 – December 28, 2008, 12:55:01 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98218Thanks to all who have responded!I now know a new word, domicile.So far I have found this: Alabama law says you may register to vote in Alabama if you are "domiciled" in the state. Domicile is defined in Alabama as physically living at a particular place with the intent to remain there permanently, or for an indefinite length of time. Under Alabama law, you retain your original domicile until intentionally abandoning it and acquiring a new one. Your intent to change domicile is the key factor in determining whether you've established a new one. That seems two edged to me. Both to those seeking to gain domicile in Alabama, such as students wanting to pay in state tuition rates and to those like me who will continue to keep a stick home here, will live in it and will park their Lazy Daze in the driveway.If my intent is just to avoid Alabama taxes, then Alabama might rightly protest.This gives me some food for thought and some things to research. Again thanks for the feedback!*****Trying to give back as much as we get, here is how we handle our affairs when we take long trips.Mail forwarding is not really an issue for us. Except for medical bills, all of our financial affairs can be handled on-line. Our utilities and credit cards are deducted from our checking accounts. We can transfer funds from any of our brokerage accounts to our checking account and vice versa on-line. For the last two years, our neighbor tosses our mail in a box and we go through it when we get home. Besides some medical provider threatening to turn our account over to a collector for $1.73 balance, there is never much that needs attention. If you are planning to "full time" or take extended trips, you might consider some of the things we have done to make life easier.***** I enjoyed the recent dialog on tire pressure. When John? trotted out the equation on torus volume, I thought gee the only thing I know about pie is eating it. What a diverse group.Cheers, Don & Dorothy
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #5 – December 28, 2008, 04:05:18 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98228QuoteDomicile is defined in Alabama as... That's pretty much the definition of domicile in any state.Quoteto those like me who will continue to keep a stick home here, will live in it and will park their Lazy Daze in the driveway. OK, then you are NOT becoming a fulltime RVer. In that case, the answer to you're original question is: NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! You can only register your vehicles in another state if you are moving to that state (or if that particular vehicle remains in the *second* state all or most of the time). Since you are not moving to South Dakota, but are, instead, remaining in Alabama and continuing to live in your sticks and bricks house, then you're going to have to suck it up and pay whatever registration fees Alabama assesses.Sorry.Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #6 – December 28, 2008, 07:02:27 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98234QuoteFor the last two years, our neighbor tosses our mail in a box and we go through it when we get home. Besides some medical provider threatening to turn our account over to a collector for $1.73 balance, there is never much that needs attention. Hello Don:Here is one way to get the occasional important stuff like car registration/license renewal forms, doctor bills, a letter from the IRS saying you overpaid your income tax by $5,000,etc.Supply your kind neighbor with some free Flat Rate Priority Mail envelopes and a supply of $4.80, as I recall, stamps. Now & then, give him an address of a Post Office where you expect to be in a week. Have him stuff the envelope full, the rate is a flat rate, i.e. not based on weight, and send it to you General Delivery, in care of the post office where you would like to pick it up. The on-line USPS site has a nice search feature that allows you to identify Post Office locations & addresses. Just go to the Post Office with your drivers license to pick it up. This works very well for us on our extended trips. We simply forward our mail to one of our daughters and she does the Flat Rate thing.EdFrom White Oak Creek Campground, Eufaula, AL. Getting ready to ring in another great year.
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #7 – December 29, 2008, 08:44:53 am Yahoo Message Number: 98260Quote "...Supply your kind neighbor with some free Flat Rate Priority Mail envelopes and a supply of $4.80, as I recall, stamps. Now & then, give him an address of a Post Office where you expect to be in a week. Have him stuff the envelope full, the rate is a flat rate, i.e. not based on weight, and send it to you General Delivery, in care of the post office where you would like to pick it up..." Ed From White Oak Creek Campground, Eufaula, AL. Getting ready to ring in another great year. Be aware that if you have someone use the Flat Rate PM envelopes that s/he should have a postal scale to weigh the envelope 1st if s/he wants to drop it in a mailbox rather than making a trip to the PO. I was told by a PO employee that the flat rate envelopes must weigh less than 13 oz; otherwise you have to hand them personally to a PO employee. It used to be 16 oz.Chris
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #8 – December 29, 2008, 10:14:50 am Yahoo Message Number: 98263Quote For the last two years, our neighbor tosses our mail in a box and we go through it when we get home. Besides some medical provider threatening to turn our account over to a collector for $1.73 balance, there is never much that needs attention.Hello Don:Here is one way to get the occasional important stuff like car registration/license renewal forms, doctor bills, a letter from the IRS saying you overpaid your income tax by $5,000,etc.Supply your kind neighbor with some free Flat Rate Priority Mail envelopes and a supply of $4.80, as I recall, stamps. Now & then, give him an address of a Post Office where you expect to be in a week. Have him stuff the envelope full, the rate is a flat rate, i.e. not based on weight, and send it to you General Delivery, in care of the post office where you would like to pick it up. The on-line USPS site has a nice search feature that allows you to identify Post Office locations & addresses. Just go to the Post Office with your drivers license to pick it up. This works very well for us on our extended trips. We simply forward our mail to one of our daughters and she does the Flat Rate thing.Ed From White Oak Creek Campground, Eufaula, AL. Getting ready to ring in another great year. Regarding getting mail general delivery. We were recently told by Good Sam mail folks that not all post offices are accepting general delivery. I asked if that was correct at one of the PO that we recently used and they confirmed that was correct. I was told to call the PO that we want to use before having the mail forwarded.Is everyone else finding this to be the case?Jim
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #9 – December 29, 2008, 10:38:27 am Yahoo Message Number: 98265QuoteWe were recently told by Good Sam mail folks that not all post offices are accepting general delivery. I asked if that was correct at one of the PO that we recently used and they confirmed that was correct.Is everyone else finding this to be the case? All of them are *supposed* to...with one caveat: In large cities that have more than one post office, only one is designated to accept general delivery mail...usually the main one located downtown. However, what we've found as we've traveled the country getting our mail via general delivery for over 10 years now is that each Postmaster/mistress is pretty much free to run their post office as they want. We've only had problems with one post office sending our general delivery mail back because they didn't "know us." I felt like asking the person behind the counter how many people they KNOW had their mail sent via general delivery. I always go to the USPS's website and under "Find A Zip Code," I type "General Delivery" into the "Address 1" field and then complete the City and State. That will give you the Zip Code of the post office where general delivery mail is accepted. Then, once I have the Zip Code, and if I don't already know where the post office is, I'll go to "Locate a Post Office" and type the Zip Code into the "City or Zip Code" box. That will bring up a page with the post office's address. If you then click on the "More Info" link, you'll get the post office's local telephone number so, if you want to confirm that they accept general delivery, you can give them a call.Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/
Was, Domicile-Residence-Taxes-Now General Delivery Reply #10 – December 29, 2008, 10:47:47 am Yahoo Message Number: 98266I think I can clear this up.General Delivery is always sent to the Ma
Re: General Delivery Reply #11 – December 29, 2008, 04:43:04 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98273Quote "...If you then click on the "More Info" link, you'll get the post office's local telephone number so, if you want to confirm that they accept general delivery, you can give them a call."Quote Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/ This makes all the sense in the world. Why WOULDN'T you call the PO as long as you knew where you were staying?Chris
Re: Was, Domicile-Residence-Taxes-Now General Delivery Reply #12 – December 29, 2008, 06:41:26 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98274Very good information from Kate and others. Below is the DMM (Domestic Mail Manual) guidelines on General Delivery. The DMM is a Postal manual utilized by the Postal Service for maintaining authorized services and standards for Postal employees
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #13 – December 29, 2008, 06:53:49 pm Yahoo Message Number: 98275Quote Regarding getting mail general delivery. We were recently told by Good Sam mail folks that not all post offices are accepting general delivery. I asked if that was correct at one of the PO that we recently used and they confirmed that was correct. The info. above is correct. The USPS on-line site that lists all Post Office locations also shows hours of operation & services offered at each PO. http://usps.whitepages.com/post_officeI look for a location that provides the full range of services. The site also shows their phone number so a call would be prudent. So far, at least, my selection of a full service PO has worked well.Ed
Re: Was, Domicile-Residence-Taxes-Now General Delivery Reply #14 – December 30, 2008, 09:33:12 am Yahoo Message Number: 98277Quote6.4 Holding MailGeneral delivery mail is held for no more than 30 days, unless a shorter period is requested by the sender. This is another area where the postmaster/mistress seems to be free to make up their own rules. We've run into post offices that will hold general delivery mail no longer than 15 days. We've run into one post office where we were made to fill out a form with personal information on it before they would give us our mail. We've run into a post office where we could only pick up ONE general delivery mail package. Any more than that, we would have been required to rent a post office box...which makes absolutely no sense if you're only going to be in a place a month or less.We've also run into post offices where the person behind the counter...perhaps a new employee...totally misunderstood the purpose of general delivery mail. We were given a line of bull about how we could only get our mail via general delivery if we lived in the area, but were waiting for a house to be built, or to move into a house. We argued with him about it, but he wasn't about to budge, either not wanting to admit he was wrong or, more likely, thinking that we didn't know squat because we didn't work for the post office. At any rate, we returned the next day, got a different employee, and got our mail.Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #15 – December 30, 2008, 09:38:05 am Yahoo Message Number: 98278QuoteWe were recently told by Good Sam mail folks that not all post offices are accepting general delivery.The info. above is correct. Not really. As has been pointed out, all post offices are *supposed* to accept general delivery mail, but it seems to be up to the local post master/mistress as to whether or not they will do so. There is ONE EXCEPTION to the "all post offices" that has already been pointed out: If you are in a town that has more than one post office, only ONE of those post offices accept general delivery mail. It's usually, if not always, the main post office located downtown.Linda Hylton http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=1167 http://earl-linda.blogspot.com/
Re: Was, Domicile-Residence-Taxes-Now General Delivery Reply #16 – December 30, 2008, 10:30:17 am Yahoo Message Number: 98281One last comment on what has worked very, very well for us over the years. Always have your general delivery mail sent to a small, rural post office rather than the main PO in a major city. Reasons. 1) Parking your RV is much easier than in a big city 2) The staff, generally one person, tends to be both friendly & knowledgeable. All too often you get that "why are you bothering me" attitude in big city PO's.3) Minimal lines. 4) plus. Ask about good places to eat & visit. Friendly locals are great sources of such information.Ed
Re: Domicile-Residence-Taxes Reply #17 – December 30, 2008, 11:06:24 am Yahoo Message Number: 98284in opp I had to let them know I was comming in and that I had a gd comming otherwise they would return to sender
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