Can you establish residency with no permanent address? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Can you establish residency with no permanent address?

mcw50 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We, too, wanted to maintain residency in our home state (Ohio) for insurance purposes and also because of low rates for vehicle registration. We knew that our medical costs would go up if we left Ohio and we have a good relationship with our agent for all our other insurance. So, we used our daughter's address as our legal address and had all our legal stuff changed to that address. Unfortunately, 6 years later, she moved to another state (and has now just moved again!) so a good friend volunteered to take on our residency and mail needs. They listed our names with the post office. We pay the friend a nominal "rent" and it has continued to work well. But, you have to be comfortable with having someone else see/open your mail and they have to be resposible enough to send it exactly when/where/how you want it sent. We have been fortunate. We have many friends who use Escapees (the favorite) and FMCA mail services as well as UPS Store services and the various places in South Dakota....all seem pleased. You just need to decide what state you want to use. After a while on the road, using the Internet for most bill-paying and other communication, we actually get very little "snail mail" (most of it from Good Sam Club, it seems smile

) We NEVER give out our friend's name or phone number as our own (always give our cell number), and they never get any phone calls for us.

Mary

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks, Mary. I don't have anyone in NC that I could use for a mailing address. If I used a UPS Store or Escapees, would that address be sufficient for things such as voter registration, driver's license & vehicle registrations, etc.? I think I will try to locate a mailing service here in Asheville and see what they say.
gypsy

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Gypsy,

Don't make any quick decision about this. A lot of research is needed before deciding which state to use.

I would suggest that you go to the Main Page of this web site, click on "Preparing for the Road" on the left side of the screen, and then scroll down to "Choosing a Home Base", and click on it.

Howard has done a lot of research on this, and I think the article will answer most of your questions.

It's tempting to use the state that you are familiar with, but for most people, states like Texas or S. Dakota are the best. For instance, when we changed from Illinois to S. Dakota, our vehicle insurance rates dropped by more than 1/2.

I don't know too much about N. Carolina, but I do know that very few Full-timers use it for their home base, so there must be a reason.

Good luck,

Jim

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks, I will look up the reference you cite. I mentioned on another topic that I am a Federal civil service retiree, and get a fed. pension - no social security. The feds tax most of my pension as income, as do all but about 8 states. It makes me furious because my retirement comes from the federal govt and if they called it social security I would pay no income tax on it. So for the states to also want to tax me drives me into a rage. NY is one of the states that doesn't tax federal retirement, and I could use the address of my son who lives there. I am sure the cost of every other facet of life is higher in NY though. I also have 3 kids who live in CA but they tax, so that's out. It is possible that SD or TX would be cheaper for other reasons and maybe the income tax would make it a wash, and I'll look into it. I'd really have to do an attitude adjustment to overcome the principle of the thing, however.
gypsy

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We maintain our home state as New Mexico and have for almost the 2 yrs since we have been full-timing. Before that we lived here for 10 yrs. We have a USP post box, rv and truck regestration, do our state and income taxes here, banking and checking account, voter reg. and we have some storage here. whatnot. This Land of Enchantment keeps drawing us back every year as we love the beauty of it here.
southwestjudy

jdensie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Changing your residency is a personal decision. We can only give the facts to how we came up with our decision.
We became SD residents for several reasons:
1. No state income tax.
2. No state inspection of vehicles.
3. 3% state sales tax. (As opposed to 6% in PA. were we are originally from) When we bought our MH in PA. We registered it in SD and saved the 3%.
4. The mailing service we have in SD took care of all of our registrations.
5. One of the lowest insurance rates in the country.
6. Our mailing service (Americas-Mailboxes) has been great to us and we never had a problem, also they are upgrading all of the time. When the county wanted to add a wheel tax they went to the meeting to fight for their customers. The tax was put on hold for a year.
7. We did have to go to SD for our picture driver’s license.
8. We got our absentee ballots to vote in the election.

As we said you have to decide for your self.

phyllen · RV-Dreams Family Member

JOn and Kathleen - how did you get started with getting a SD residency? We belong to Escapees and know they provide that service at the Livingston facility and are considering going there. Is there a place in SD to go to and they walk you through it?

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

SD sounds pretty good. Do you have to actually go to the SD to set this all up? I will get there eventually, but first have to sell my house, buy an RV and tow vehicle, etc. If I could have everything set up beforehand then it would make the transition easier.

Also, for NM, are the state income taxes, vehicle registration, insurance, etc., reasonable comparatively? My son owns an acre in Deming (my father originally bought it sight unseen and dreamed of living there some day) - it's outside Deming in the middle of nothing, but I could possibly use it as a base, on paper at least.

SD sounds good though.
gypsy

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Changing states and choosing a state for residency are very individual decisions. If you are not of Medicare age you have to pay close attention to health insurance issues, like pre-existing conditions being excempt or not and availability of particular insurance carriers. A good friend found SD did not work for his health insurance and needed to go with Texas. We can't move out of Washington State and maintain our health insurance, which is actually a decent state for full-timers with no income tax, low vehicle license taxes, but high sales taxes so it cost us a bunch of taxes on the motorhome. (Washington is agressive about Montana, LLCs!, so don't recommend that.) We have friends using a relative or friends place for their important paperwork and having that person send everything to Escapees Mail service while magazines and everything else goes directly to Texas. They have their drivers licenses, vehicle licenses and vote in the state the relative or friend is in, not Texas.

-- Edited by bjoyce at 12:52, 2008-07-18

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

You touched on another facet of moving and that is health insurance. I currently have Medicare and BCBS of NC, and they work together so that I rarely have to pay anything. I hope that my cost of the BCBS is the same no matter what state I "call home", but I'm not sure about that.

LakeConroePenny · RV-Dreams Family Member

gypsy97 wrote:

I also looked at the Escapees website as to their mail forwarding service, but am not sure how that works for mail coming to the post office for a street address. For example, Medicare & Blue Cross statement, US Ofc of Personnel Mgmt (my retirement info), W-2's, the IRS, etc. It seems like some sort of physical address is required, rather than a post office box.
gypsy

Hi Gypsy, I think that you will find out that the SKP (Escapee) mail forwarding doesn't have P.O. Boxes, but it is such and such a # (your box #), Rainbow Drive, Livingtston, so it looks like an address. Happy Trails, Penny, TX

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

It reads like an apartment number, our address is
102 Rainbow Drive #279 Livingston TX 77399
I don't believe a specific type of address is required for any type of mail that you mentioned.
Fred

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Gyspy97 I have sent you a private message on New Mexico regestration fees, state taxes, insurance. Also you can google and get answers to your questions on the state. There is also a question and answer on the sites.
southwestjudy

ahoweth · RV-Dreams Family Member

Gypsy97:

I too am a CSRS recipient. When I retired I moved from my home state to Texas and became an SKP. I changed my permanent residence to that location, got my Texas diver's license, registered to vote, and taged both my motor coach and my car in Texas. (that part was easy as Texas has an on-line service for registering and taging a vehicle that can be done from any where you have internet service and the folks in the Plolk County offices are just wonderful to work with you via the phone) Unfortunatley Texas does require an annual vehicle inspection but you can get that any time you enter the state and there is a 6.5% sales tax should you change vehicles. My SKP address is my legal domicile. BCBS of Texas has been good to work with as well. I transfered from my home state to Texas with no trouble at all. I vote via absentee ballot. My CSRS check still goes to a bank in my home state and I can access that via the internet. On the national scene, Texas is a powerful state because it has a large population and a couple of major cities. Houston alone is 4.5 million folks. South Dakota is much less powerful with only 300,000 folks in the entire state. Having had several presidents from the state of Texas doesn't hurt the states political clout either. I don't know whether that will ever be important to me or not but I know that when Texas speaks Washington listens as much as they listen to anyone!

Approximately 30,000 people utilize the SKP mail forwarding service. They are pros and will work with you on any problem you might have. They have 3 mailforwarding plans you can use depending on your personal preferences. With that many people being SKP's and using their services they form a pretty powerful lobby when laws are proposed that are detrimental to their clients. The Care center they maintain is a wonderful thing and does qualify for a tax deduction should you wish to contribute funds to its operation.

JMO

-- Edited by ahoweth at 08:05, 2008-07-19

jdensie · RV-Dreams Family Member

phyllen wrote:

JOn and Kathleen - how did you get started with getting a SD residency? We belong to Escapees and know they provide that service at the Livingston facility and are considering going there. Is there a place in SD to go to and they walk you through it?

We went to there web site and got all of the informatiom and downloaded all of the paper from it.
Web site being : www.Americas-Mailboxes.com

On another note my insurance is with the VA and I just go to the nearest VA. for any problem. My GF is retired Govt. and can get Med. help around the country. I do know that I had BS in Pa. and they would not cover me in SD.

Like I said, picking a state residency is very personal and you must know all of the events that can happen.

I do know that what bjoyce said about the LLC's and Wash. fighting them and so is CO. going after them. Be very careful of them.

-- Edited by jdensie at 08:14, 2008-07-19

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this topic, both here and to me privately. I have followed the suggestions and links, and have learned so much I didn't realize before. South Dakota seems hard to beat, but I will need to find out about my medical insurance. I think it will be the same premium as NC - some of the larger states with giant HMO's such as Kaiser Permanente, offer many insurance options, but I have been very satisfied with my Blue Cross.
gypsy

gypsy97 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I haven't heard any mention of a Montana LLC. No sales tax on vehicles sounds good - do they get you on personal income tax and other kinds of charges?
gypsy

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

Before you look at doing a Montana LLC, be sure to do your homework. There are reams and reams and reams and ream of info on the web both pro/com on this exceedingly controversial avenue. Even in this very forum. No need to repeat what is plastered all over every RV forum in the country. Do your Google homework. It is in no way as black-white as it might first appear.

greenlady · RV-Dreams Family Member

gypsy97 wrote:

If I used a UPS Store or Escapees, would that address be sufficient for things such as voter registration, driver's license & vehicle registrations, etc.? I think I will try to locate a mailing service here in Asheville and see what they say.
gypsy

My husband and I are Escapees. they provide us with a permanent address for all those things you are concerened about. that being said, we are now Texans. we didn't mind changing states. In Texas we don't pay a state tax. a big advantage for our fixed income.

Linda

LakeConroePenny · RV-Dreams Family Member

ahoweth wrote:

Gypsy97:

Unfortunatley Texas does require an annual vehicle inspection but you can get that any time you enter the state and there is a 6.5% sales tax should you change vehicles.

If you trade in your vehicle, the 6.5% tax is just on the difference in value.
Happy Trails, Penny, TX