Florida Residency

[mitchden1]

I have a home in NJ and a home in Florida. I purchased my home in NJ in 1976 and my home in Florida in 2018. I spend about 8 months in Florida and 4 months in NJ. My wife and I are considering becoming Florida residents to eliminate paying NJ income taxes. My wife and I are retired and our income comes from social security, a pension, investment interest and dividends and RMD's.

When I'm in Florida, my NJ mail is forwarded to Florida and vice versa when I'm in NJ. I get very little mail as almost everything is done online (i.e. paying bills). In 2024, I will have been in Florida from Jan. 1 - May 11. I will be in NJ from May 11 until the middle of Sept. and then go back to Florida for the remaining months in 2024. Since 2019, I've been spending about 7 months per year in Florida.

For income tax purposes, can I decide what date I want to change my residency and then several months later do it officially with Florida "officials" ? How do I determine how much of my yearly income is taxable in NJ? If I'm in NJ for 4.5 months, can I prorate all 2024 income and pay NJ taxes on 4.5/12 of that income?

Thanks.

[TomD8]

For state income tax purposes, the relevant concept in your situation is one of domicile.  You can have only domicile at a time.  If NJ is still your state of domicile, then all your income is taxable by NJ - regardless of how many or how few months you actually stay in NJ.  NJ has a tax publication that explains the concept of domicile in detail.  Here's a link to that publication:

https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/tgi-ee/git6.pdf

In order to become a tax resident of Florida, you would have to abandon your domicile in NJ and establish a new domicile in Florida.