No, I am not leaving Minnesota! However, I am often asked - particularly by my clients who are at or nearing retirement - what needs to be done in order to change one's residency from Minnesota to another state, most commonly Florida. As with most tax law the answer is complicated, but there are some guidelines.

Change your domicile - Domicile is where your "home" is. The State of Minnesota uses 26 factors in determining where your home is. For a list of these factors, please refer to the 2015 Residency Report issued by the Minnesota Department of Revenue. A few highlights from the list:
- Register to vote in the new state
- If you maintain a residence in Minnesota after moving away, make sure to change the status to Non Homestead.
- Change your driver's license to the new state.
- If you still hunt and fish in Minnesota, be sure purchase nonresident licenses.
Change your physical presence - make sure to spend less than half of the tax year in Minnesota. For rules on what constitutes a day spent in Minnesota, please refer to the aforementioned 2015 Residency Report.
Maintain Records - from the 2015 Residency Report: "Any person domiciled outside Minnesota who maintains a place of abode within Minnesota and claims to be a nonresident of the state must have available for examination adequate records to substantiate that more than one-half of the tax year was spent outside Minnesota. Adequate records means any contemporaneously kept records that establish the places of physical presence of the person on particular dates. Adequate records include, but are not limited to, calendars, diaries, canceled checks, credit card receipts, and airline tickets.

If you or someone you know would like more information on this issue, please contact us.