Can I claim FL as my State of Residence even though I am a doctor fulfilling my medical residency obligations in PA?

[lperkowski]

I am a doctor and consider myself a resident of Florida and am currently fulfilling my medical residency obligations in PA.  As a medical resident, I receive a stipend and other benefits.  However, I currently have no intention to remain in PA after my three year medical residency is completed. Rather I have every intention to return to Florida.  Do I continue to continue to claim Florida as my State of residence or should I temporarily claim PA because I am renting an apartment and receiving a stipend? My drivers permit and vehicle registration are still issued out of Florida.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

3 years is a pretty long time to be a resident of Florida "temporarily" living in Pennsylvania.  And in any case, even if you were a resident of Florida, you would owe PA tax on income earned in PA.  As a resident of state B working temporarily in state A, you owe tax on a non-resident return to state A for income earned in state A.  Then you owe a full year resident tax return in State B that reports all your income, with a credit for tax amounts paid in state A.

I doubt that filing a PA non-resident return would save you any tax over a resident return, and in fact you might be deprived of some credits.

In any case, the PA residency rules for tax returns are here http://www.revenue.pa.gov/FormsandPublications/FormsforIndividuals/Documents/Personal%20Income%20Tax...

[californiasteven]

Remember that FL has no state income tax, except for rental property and business owners.  As Opus said there is probably no advantage either way.  My understanding of tax policy is that you can still claim FL as your state of residence if you want to, or PA if you like that better.