Temporary relocation and residency

[btomasic19]

I lived in PA my whole life until I moved for a new job in Sept 2019. I am on a temporary assignment in SC for a year. Directly afterwards (Oct. 2020), I will move to NY where I will become a permanent resident. I am still maintaining my Drivers license and vehicle registration in PA since I will only be in SC temporarily. However, for my 2020 tax return, will I be required to file a PA tax return, even though no money was made there and I never lived there during the year?

[BillM223]

It appears to me that, yes, you will still file a Pennsylvania return alone with SC and NY returns in 2020. But read on... 

The question is not "where did you live" but "where is your domicile".

Your domicile is determined by a lot of things, like where you own your home, where you maintain a permanent mailing address, where you are registered to vote, where you have a drivers license, where you are planning to return to, and so on.

Note that generally, until you take positive steps to change your domicile, your old domicile is still active.

Thus, if you determine that South Carolina was never your domicile, then your domicile remains in Pennsylvania until you take the steps to change it to New York.

You see, it's not a function of where you sleep, it's a function of where your legal home is.