Ok, I hope this is not to long, but here is my situation. We live in Indiana, I am retired and my wife is still working. She will be done sometime this year. We want to be out of Indiana by next winter. I did not want to buy our fulltime rig and truck until we had our address changed and all banking and everything else switched to South Dakota. With what the difference in Sales tax and Excise tax I would save about $6000.
We have sold our house and are living in an apartment now and will go to an older RV for this summer
I was thinking I could just setup the South Dakota address now in my name and go ahead and buy the new rig and put it in my name only and register it in SD. and live in it here in Indiana until we leave in November.
Can I have a different legal address than my spouse?
We could wait and buy everything next year after we made the address changes after my wife is done working but I want to also take advantage of a buyers market. ( okay that's not true, I just want the new rig and truck)
Thanks for your opinions
Dave
Luvglass said
07:01 AM Mar 4, 2010
I'm sure you can. What do separated, but still married people do? You will probably have to file individual taxes in the different states though.
I'm sure Howard will comment soon.
DagoRanch said
12:00 PM Mar 4, 2010
You know that's a really good question. I'm set to buy my rig this year, but not leave till May of next year. I've been wondering this same thing as well. The sales taxes alone in my (now) home state of AZ, is worth a few thousand bucks vs the very low sales tax rate in SD.
Watching intently for Howards take on it :)
Mallo said
04:03 PM Mar 4, 2010
That's what we've done.
I still work my wife does not because of a house we own still she stayed a resident of one state while I moved to South Dakota.
Now this doesn't work in all states it depends on each states laws concerning filing status and I'm not willing to look up IN.s laws for you.
But the state we came out of allows us to file either Married Filing Joint or Married Filing Separate and it doesn't have to match our Federal return.
That means for last tax year we filed;
MFJ Federal (Tax Home South Dakota) MFS Full Year Resident The Brideandjoy's home state MFS Non Resident (my company is based there I do some work there) the old home state for me. and if there was a tax return for SD it would be MFS for me as well.
That means her income is taxed in her home state while my higher income is taxed in my home state.
Now because I spend some time in her home state (not enough to be considered a resident) I do file a Non Resident return there and pro rate some of my income to them.
It all comes down to what IN allows.
Mallo
Howard said
07:57 AM Mar 6, 2010
Well, since I've been brought in to this discussion, I guess I should comment.
The simple answer to the question "Can I have a different legal address than my spouse?" is "Yes".
It happens all the time for a variety of reasons. There are spouses that work and live in different states due to long-term work assignments. There are retired spouses that change residences to more tax-friendly states where a second home might exist while the non-retired spouse retains residence in the state where they continue to earn all their income. There are military separations of spouses (although there are many special provisions for that situation).
There are certainly "dangers" of having different state domiciles as spouses. And while I've often commented that it's best to make it clear where your domicile is or will be, I think it is a bit safer during the "transition period" of establishing a new domicile as long as you have a verifiable intent to make a permanent change. In other words, I think it "looks better" if you are simply getting a "head start" in the establishment of a new domicile that will soon be the domicile for the both of you.
Now, where it gets complicated is in the income taxation as Mallo pointed out. I'll leave that part up to you to figure out, but "yes" you can have separate state domiciles.
We live in Indiana, I am retired and my wife is still working. She will be done sometime this year. We want to be out of Indiana by next winter.
I did not want to buy our fulltime rig and truck until we had our address changed and all banking and everything else switched to South Dakota. With what the difference in Sales tax and Excise tax I would save about $6000.
We have sold our house and are living in an apartment now and will go to an older RV for this summer
I was thinking I could just setup the South Dakota address now in my name and go ahead and buy the new rig and put it in my name only and register it in SD.
and live in it here in Indiana until we leave in November.
Can I have a different legal address than my spouse?
We could wait and buy everything next year after we made the address changes after my wife is done working but I want to also take advantage of a buyers market. ( okay that's not true, I just want the new rig and truck)
Thanks for your opinions
Dave
I still work my wife does not because of a house we own still she stayed a resident of one state while I moved to South Dakota.
Now this doesn't work in all states it depends on each states laws concerning filing status and I'm not willing to look up IN.s laws for you.
But the state we came out of allows us to file either Married Filing Joint or Married Filing Separate and it doesn't have to match our Federal return.
That means for last tax year we filed;
MFJ Federal (Tax Home South Dakota)
MFS Full Year Resident The Brideandjoy's home state
MFS Non Resident (my company is based there I do some work there) the old home state for me.
and if there was a tax return for SD it would be MFS for me as well.
That means her income is taxed in her home state while my higher income is taxed in my home state.
Now because I spend some time in her home state (not enough to be considered a resident) I do file a Non Resident return there and pro rate some of my income to them.
It all comes down to what IN allows.
Mallo
Well, since I've been brought in to this discussion, I guess I should comment.
The simple answer to the question "Can I have a different legal address than my spouse?" is "Yes".
It happens all the time for a variety of reasons. There are spouses that work and live in different states due to long-term work assignments. There are retired spouses that change residences to more tax-friendly states where a second home might exist while the non-retired spouse retains residence in the state where they continue to earn all their income. There are military separations of spouses (although there are many special provisions for that situation).
There are certainly "dangers" of having different state domiciles as spouses. And while I've often commented that it's best to make it clear where your domicile is or will be, I think it is a bit safer during the "transition period" of establishing a new domicile as long as you have a verifiable intent to make a permanent change. In other words, I think it "looks better" if you are simply getting a "head start" in the establishment of a new domicile that will soon be the domicile for the both of you.
Now, where it gets complicated is in the income taxation as Mallo pointed out. I'll leave that part up to you to figure out, but "yes" you can have separate state domiciles.