Thinking about leaving New York for Florida before a bonus, a business sale or a Roth conversion? New York has two separate hooks. Domicile continues until the taxpayer proves it was abandoned, and statutory residence catches anyone who keeps a New York home and spends more than 183 days in the state, with any part of a day counting. In a residency audit the state reviews E-ZPass records, cell phone location data, credit card charges and travel records, and the taxpayer who cannot document his days loses them.
Florida paperwork helps but does not decide the case. For a Roth conversion the fight is residency on the conversion date, so the sequence is move first, convert second. For a sale, the planning window opens earlier still: before the term sheet, the family should ask who should own the asset, since a South Dakota nongrantor trust funded before the sale is a separate taxpayer outside New York's reach when it has no New York trustee, assets or source income.
The full piece is at turnipseed.law.
