Daughter moved/worked in FL in 2019 but is still listed with MD address

[wprotzman]

My daughter moved to FL in January of 2019.  She went there on a Disney internship but is now staying and will continue to work for Disney.  She has been a MD resident but will change that in 2020.  Since she was not in the state of MD all of 2019 and never made any money in the state of MD, will she still owe MD taxes for 2019 or is there a way to get an exemption from that?

[DoninGA]

In 2019, if she never worked in Maryland and has no Maryland sourced income, she does not file a 2019 MD state tax return.

Florida does not have a personal income tax so there is no Florida state tax return to file.

[wprotzman]

Thanks... so it does not matter that she was still a MD resident (she also still had her car titled in MD and MD insurance) - changing all that this month. 

[TomD8]

@wprotzman  The issue is one of domicile - your daughter's main, permanent home.  In the unlikely event that she is questioned by the state of Maryland, she'll have to prove that she has indeed established her new domicile in Florida.  A taxpayer can have only one domicile at a time.  You'll find MD's detailed residency rules here:  https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/forms/Tax_Publications/Administrative_Releases/Income_and_Estate_Tax_R...

The income of a taxpayer domiciled in MD is taxable by MD.

[Hal_Al]

As you can tell, the answer is not clear cut.  

But to make it simple: she is probably safe in not filing a MD return, since she was in FL for 11+ months and does not intend to return to MD.

Note that you can not claim her as a dependent.  There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and standard ("Qualifying Relative"[QR] in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related).  You cannot claim her as a QC because she did not live you. You cannot claim her as a QR because she made too much money.