TomD8
Level 15

State tax filing

For tax purposes, virtually all states define residency on the basis of domicile or statute.

 

You generally become a resident of a new state on the day you begin living in it with the intent of making it your new domicile - your main, primary home.  Since you can only have one domicile at a time, establishment of a new domicile implies that you have abandoned your previous state of domicile.  As soon as you are domiciled in a new state, for tax purposes you are a resident.

 

Additionally most states have rules that consider you a resident for tax purposes even if the state is not your domicile, but you lived in it more than half of the tax year.  This is called statutory residency.  It is rare but theoretically possible to be a domiciliary resident of one state and a statutory resident of another.  You are always a resident of your domiciliary state.

 

Most of your listed options do not appear in state laws regarding residency.  No state requires home ownership or home rental to define a resident.  (Think of a teenager who lives with parents and neither owns nor rents.)  Date of drivers license or voter registration is irrelevant because some people fail to obtain these things until weeks or even months after moving to the new state.  The same concept applies to your belongings' arrival or the start date of school or work.   These things too may not occur until weeks after you've begun living in the new state.  

**Answers are correct to the best of my ability but do not constitute tax or legal advice.