Best way to establish residency in Florida even though you ship out alot

Is it possible to establish residency in Florida even though you ship out a lot of the year? Any tips or advice on how to gain residency there?

[B][U]IMHO[/U][/B]…suggest you start by establishing a Florida physical address and obtain a driver license, tags and title for your vechicle…As I am now a fulltime RVer it has worked for me the last two years regardless of where I chose to reside or work??

[QUOTE=MateW;46282]Is it possible to establish residency in Florida even though you ship out a lot of the year? Any tips or advice on how to gain residency there?[/QUOTE]

Try using Google.

Or Bing.

Or Dogpile.

The question isn’t about Florida… The question is what will your prior state of residency require to demonstrate Florida residency…
already wrote this - http://scuttleorswim.com/2010/11/do-mariners-pay-state-taxes/
also keep in mind that the most important part of establishing residency is becoming a resident. Florida doesn’t impose a State tax. So Florida isn’t going to take much issue with you residing there or not. The issue is with your prior state disputing the change or residency. All states are a little different. Many base it on sliding scale (voting, property, license, banks, family, presence, etc…)

[QUOTE=MateW;46282]Is it possible to establish residency in Florida even though you ship out a lot of the year? Any tips or advice on how to gain residency there?[/QUOTE]

Do you own a house? That;s an important question. If you do, you may be getting a homestead exemption on your property taxes. In that case, if you try to change residency to a state with no income taxes, you will have to back pay property taxes to your current state to be legit. Basically, property taxes is a good determiner for a state auditor when establishing domicile. Knew someone that got busted and that was the red flag.

First thing you do is go to a UPS store and rent a box. Do not get a US Postal Service mailbox as this will not work. Once you do that go to the nearest bank and open an account using the UPS store address. Make one small change to the address. Don’t say Box #, say Suite #. Take your new bank book or whatever ID card they give you and go to the DMV. Tell them you just moved to Florida. When they ask for proof, you have a bank statement. Now you have a Florida Driver’s license. Next you get insurance on your vehicle. Then back to DMV with your driver’s license and proof of insurance and you register your vehicle using your new address.
Change the address on all your bills to your new Florida address. The UPS store will forward them to you as often as you want for a fee. Congratulations, you’re a Floridian and your home state can’t touch you. Even if you still have a house in your home state, they can’t prove you are doing anything more than vacationing there. If you are married, you’ll have to file as married but separated, but if you’re single you’re home free brother!

go to the UOS store and rent an address for a year

Register to vote in Florida.

[B]check this out (from state of Fl) you may also apply for a [I]Florida State ID [/I]if you don’t want to go for all the drivers liscense hassle to begin with, no there is no state tax, but they will charge you “impact” fees on just about anything they can find. Let me know if you need specific resourses. Where you looking to go/register?[/B]

[QUOTE=MateW;46282]Is it possible to establish residency in Florida even though you ship out a lot of the year? Any tips or advice on how to gain residency there?[/QUOTE]

Move there. Get a place to live and pay for rent, lights, water etc. How did you establish residency where you reside now? It’s the same procedure.
Establishing a false residency to avoid paying state income tax is NOT a good idea. It will catch up with you eventually.
Pay your taxes and support your state. If you actually lived in FL you’d pay more taxes than most places anyway. They have a fee on everything and it’ll only get worse since folks aren’t moving there any more. Florida’s biggest hope right now is Gov. Ric Scott. He was the CEO in charge of a healthcare outfit called Columbia/HCA that was convicted of defrauding US taxpayers out of $1.7 billion dollars of Medicare and Medicaid money. He got a $10 million dollar severance package and stock worth $300 million for pulling this off and didn’t serve a day in jail. [He didn’t recall and took the 5th against self incrimination so many times it got silly]
BUT, with his “know how” he should be able to defraud the US out of enough money to keep Florida afloat for another year or so. If not FL is screwed so stay home or come pay the fees.

I am a retired MM&P member living in Costa Rica. I have been a Florida resident for over 20 years without actually living there. I vote absentee ballot, have a Florida drivers license and bank account. Recently I have been using www.sbimailservice.com and am happy with them so far. Some of the forms they require can be downloaded on the internet.

Good Luck,
Sail