Which states keep a claim on people who have moved abroad

Someone who has left a state, in the ordinary sense, but may not have left it in the legal sense. Many states tax anyone domiciled there on worldwide income, so former residents who never gave up that domicile can still owe tax on everything.

The second route, meanwhile, is state-source income, such as rent.

That income usually stays taxable in the state whatever your residence.

Because no primary source measures it. Enforcement varies by case, by year and by the facts each state sees. Any list of the states that chase former residents hardest rests on impressions rather than published data.

So we would rather compare rules than repeat reputations.

After all, the rules are what decide your own position.

What matters is whether the rules reach you, not how often they reach others.

Through domicile and the temporary or transitory test. A Californian domiciliary outside the state for a temporary or transitory purpose stays resident. The state weighs a published list of ties, and says their strength matters more than their number.

It also presumes residence once you spend more than nine months in the state.

The FTB's Publication 1031 sets it out.

A family home kept in California weighs heavily against a claimed move.

Yes, a safe harbor for employment contracts. A domiciliary outside the state under an employment-related contract for at least 546 consecutive days is treated as a nonresident, with up to 45 days of visits a year, unless intangible income passes $200,000 or the absence is mainly to avoid tax.

Without a contract, however, residency turns on the facts.

So a self-employed person gets no safe harbor at all.

Keep the contract and a log of every visit, since both prove the conditions.

Through domicile, a statutory resident test and a demanding standard of proof. A New York domicile does not change until you show, with clear and convincing evidence, that you abandoned it. Separately, keeping a permanent place of abode and spending 184 days there makes you a resident.

Also, any part of a day counts as a day.

Above all, the standard of proof is what makes New York distinctive.

Keeping a New York apartment makes the day count matter every year.

Two, for domiciliaries. Group A needs no New York home all year, a home elsewhere all year and 30 days or less in the state. Group B, the 548-day rule, needs 450 days in a foreign country within 548 consecutive days, with 90 days or less in New York for you, your spouse and minor children.

However, each group is all-or-nothing.

The IT-203 instructions define both.

Group B suits postings of roughly eighteen months or more, since it needs 450 days abroad.

Through domicile, with a pointed example. Virginia Tax says a resident who accepts employment in another country remains a domiciliary resident unless appropriate steps are taken to abandon Virginia as the state of domicile. It also says moving out and returning within six months generally shows no change of intent.

By contrast, we found no published safe harbor for people abroad.

See Virginia Tax on residency status.

For former residents of Virginia, the steps you take after the job offer are therefore the whole case.

Not in general. California's credit instructions exclude taxes paid to any foreign country. Virginia allows no credit for foreign income taxes except on foreign-source pension income. New York's resident credit covers other US states, their subdivisions, the District of Columbia and Canadian provinces.

So former residents still classed as resident face British and state tax on the same income.

See the California Schedule S instructions and the New York IT-112-R instructions.

Each asks for different evidence. California weighs ties and their strength, New York demands clear and convincing evidence that you abandoned your domicile, and Virginia looks for appropriate steps to give up the state.

In every case the burden sits with you, not the state.

So the practical answer is the same everywhere: cut the strong ties, document them and keep a day log.

Because it turns a residency mistake into full double taxation. Former residents working in Britain already pay British income tax, and the federal return usually relieves them through credits or the exclusion. A state that still treats them as resident then taxes the same wages again.

California even adds back the federal exclusion, so excluded wages become taxable for the state.

In our practice this is the single largest unexpected bill former residents bring to us.

No. The US-UK treaty applies on the American side to federal income taxes under the Internal Revenue Code. Its non-discrimination article reaches state taxes, but nothing in it allocates taxing rights between Britain and a state.

So state residency is a matter of state law alone.

In short, federal relief stops at the federal return.

That surprises people who assume a treaty binds the whole country. For tax relief, it binds the federal government.

They change the question rather than removing it. A state with no broad personal income tax has no residency fight to pick over wages. But leaving a taxing state for one of them before moving abroad only helps if the move is genuine.

Still, a short stop in another state rarely convinces anyone.

Check the rules of the specific state before relying on it.

We have not listed them here, because each state's rules should be checked at the source.

State-source income, whatever your residence. Rent from property in the state is the common example, and a later sale of that property usually follows it. Former residents with a house kept in the old state therefore often keep filing a nonresident return.

By contrast, wages earned in Britain are not state-source income.

Our note on keeping your American house covers the property side.

So former residents who sell the house when they leave usually simplify the next few years considerably.

Most states treat you as a part-year resident, taxing worldwide income for the resident part of the year and only state-source income afterward. The move date therefore needs evidence, such as a flight record, a lease and a job start date.

Bonuses and share awards earned partly before the move need care.

States often tax the portion earned while you lived there, even if you receive it later in Britain.

These questions work for any state you are leaving, not just the three above.

Because they turn a judgment call into a checklist. Proving that a domicile moved can take years of argument, while meeting a defined test takes a contract, a day log and discipline. For people who plan to return, the exceptions are often the only realistic route.

Notably, both California and New York tie their exceptions to time abroad.

Plan the posting around the rule rather than the other way round.

A posting agreed with the rule in mind is far easier to defend.

Then the exceptions matter more than any argument about domicile. A definite plan to return after a posting keeps a domicile in place under most state rules, so former residents on postings usually rely on a safe harbor or a defined exception instead.

Returning early can break those exceptions.

Plan the dates of any return with the relevant rule in front of you.

Take three colleagues posted to London for two years, from San Diego, Manhattan and Arlington. The Californian has an employment contract and fits the 546-day safe harbor. The New Yorker gives up her apartment and meets Group A each full year.

The Virginian keeps his house and plans to return, and Virginia offers no published exception.

He faces the hardest position of the three, with no credit for British tax. This example is illustrative, not advice.

All three pay British tax on their salaries. Only the Virginian may pay state tax on them too.

Usually you file a part-year return for the year you leave, which also marks the change in the state's records. After that, file nonresident returns only if you have state-source income.

Stopping without explanation leaves a gap the state may later ask about.

A clear part-year return is the cleanest way to close the chapter.

Usually with income the state can see. A resident return that stops, a rental property that keeps producing income, or a large sale shortly after the move can all prompt a question years later.

Then the state asks for evidence of the move.

That delay is why former residents should build the record when they leave, not when the letter arrives.

First, relying on a reputation list instead of the rules.

Second, assuming every state has a safe harbor like California's.

Third, expecting a state credit for British tax.

Fourth, forgetting that former residents with a rental property still file there.

Fifth, assuming a posting abroad ends residency while planning to return to the same home afterwards.

We read your state's rules against your actual plans, and prepare the state return alongside your US federal return. Our guide to filing a US return from abroad covers the federal side.

Where a state's position is unclear, we also say so rather than guess.

This article is general information, not personal tax advice. Talk to us about your own state.