Oh, thanks, Cliffy!
Colabri, you can also take steps to prove that you are a citizen of a paticular state. Eg. get a legal drivers license, register to vote, file tax returns, etc.
This is especially key for establishing residency for in-State tuition purposes. For example, to qualify as a resident for the University of California.
I am not a lawyer or accountant, but base the following on qualified professional advice given to me, and to some extent my own, reasonably informed interpretation of the relevant provisions. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought, blah blah blah.
My last U.S. residence was in Illinois. I still maintain ties to Illinois, including keeping a current driver’s license and having an abode available to me, and therefore I consider myself to be a legal permanent resident of the state. But since I’m not actually, physically residing in the state, I consider myself not to be a resident for tax purposes in Illinois.
Under Illinois tax law, a resident is (among other definitions) a person who is domiciled in the state but is absent for a temporary or transitory purpose during the taxable year. I have been in Mexico continuously since 1997 except for brief visits outside of Mexico. I own a home in Mexico and not in Illinois, and for all U.S. purposes I am a Mexican tax resident with a tax home outside the U.S. In a typical year I’m in Illinois for 2 or 3 weeks total, in the context of family vacation. Also, I do not exercise any employment in Illinois, although I do derive certain professional fees from an Illinois source, in an independent activity carried on in Mexico. So, my absence is not temporary or transitory, and I deem myself not to be a resident of Illinois and file no IL tax return.
That said, I consider myself to be a legal resident of Illinois, arguably having a “true, fixed and permanent” home available to me, with which my Illinois bank accounts and other personal matters are associated. My immigration status in Mexico is business visitor, notwithstanding the fact that I’ve been here for seven years on this stay… I don’t have or seek a permanent resident status in Mexico. I have an Illinois driver’s license, for which I evidently qualify by having a previous DL. No facility staff has ever asked how long I’ve been in Illinois, or whether I am physically residing in Illinois. I suppose there’s a circular argument in that you qualify for a DL by being a resident, and partly qualify as a resident by evidencing the place of residence with a DL.
I voluntarily surrendered my voter registration in 1997 because I was getting persistent jury calls without being physically present in the state. If I decided to reregister, I expect I could easily do so using my valid DL and proof of address.
Unless and until the resident definition under the IL Income Tax Act generally covers all persons with an IL driver’s license or claiming a permanent home in the state without regard to actualy physical presence, or until the DL renewal requirements call for resident tax status, I believe that I can be both a resident and nonresident of the state, as described above.
But back to the OP: For DC purposes, resident is defined in relevant part as an individual domiciled within the District at any time during the taxable year, with the caveat that such individual’s absence from the District for temporary or transitory purposes shall not be regarded as changing his domicile or place of abode. See DC ST § 47-1801.04 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OFFICIAL CODE 2001 EDITION DIVISION VIII. GENERAL LAWS. TITLE 47. TAXATION, LICENSING, PERMITS, ASSESSMENTS, AND FEES. CHAPTER 18. INCOME AND FRANCHISE TAXES. SUBCHAPTER I. REPEAL OF PRIOR INCOME TAX LAW AND APPLICABILITY OF SUBCHAPTER; GENERAL DEFINITIONS. § 47-1801.04. There may be applicable administrative regulations, which I couldn’t find in a cursory search.
If in a fit of dementia you chose to follow my interpretation, you might reasonably argue that your extended stay in Panama and lack of exercise of a DC employment supports your contention that you’re not a resident of DC for tax purposes.
As regards your driver’s license, since your prior registration lapsed I imagine you would need to obtain a new one. That would require proof of current residency, which you might have in your current voter ID card. However, it seems from your post that you do not have a permanent abode available to you. Unlike Illinois, DC has special provisions for “temporary absentee” driver’s licenses, which you might be required to obtain and might work against you in your construction of an ongoing absence for tax purposes.
Since it also seems that your only connection to NY is receipt of deposits, it’s unlikely that you’d qualify for a NY driver’s license.
Ive got a similiar question.
Ive got dual US-UK citizenship but am resident in the UK.
I dont think I qualify as a resident of any US state (I lived In Florida for a few months on and off as a child and for about 6 months over 10 years ago)
Would my Presidential vote go to Florida or an expat “pool”?
Last time I was in Florida I got a Florida driving licence. Ive lost it. If I ever go back there to live, can I just get a new licence issued or will I have to retake the driving test?
I don’t think that there’s a catch-all “Americans Abroad” voter class. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act says that a U.S. citizen may register to vote in the last U.S. state where they resided prior to leaving the country, regardless of the time passed since such exit or the lack of intent to return. You might be restricted to federal elections only, though. Voting in federal elections under that state’s elections registrar does not automatically subject you to taxation in that state.
All the info you need on Florida DLs: http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/ddl/faqkeys.html
To give you a concrete example of where you are considered to be domiciled, when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador I was required to file federal taxes on my income. All $1200 of it. The federal forms were a pain and since I “knew” that I’d not have to pay any state tax, I simply didn’t file in Wisconsin, the state I had left upon entering the Corps. A few months later, the friendly Wisconsin IRS sent me a letter saying I owed something like $3000 in taxes and penalties, based on the estimated earnings of an engineer in the state. So I filed the silly form and got a refund of about $30.
Regardless of where you intend to land upon returning to the US, or if you don’t intend to return at all, the last state (or territory or district) in which you lived will still consider you to be a resident for voting and tax purposes. You will have to change your domicile as described by cliffy to get it modified and those rules differ from locale to locale.
good luck.
cj
FYI:
http://dmv.washingtondc.gov/main.shtm
Department of Motor Vehicles
301 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20001__
(202) 727-5000
I’d spend the time and money on a call, if I were you.
Meanwhile:
http://dmv.washingtondc.gov/serv/dlicense/renewal.shtm
So you might be able to get away with just sending them your voter registration info … though it sounds like that doesn’t exist anymore for you (i.e., they just automatically accept your absentee ballot request each time without a new registration).
Also note:
http://dmv.washingtondc.gov/serv/dlicense/getlicense.shtm
Look at that Application PDF, though–even if you got by on proof of residency with your voter reg. somehow, you’ll likely have to lie and enter some current DC address there as your residence. Doesn’t look like there’s any legal way around living there/having someone whose house you can claim as a residence.
And just IMO, I think with post-9/11 security surrounding terrorists’ easy access to state driver’s licenses, you might be in for some trouble.
PS–why do you need a U.S. license at all?
Thanks for all the input so far. A lot of it has been very helpful, especially explaining the difference between domicile and residency, and that there may be different requirements for different kinds of residency.
Some additional information:
I was transferred to Panama by my organization in 1992 as an “official” move, that is, they paid for it. It was for a one-year job, but since then I have gotten grants and contracts to pay my salary for periods of one to several years. So my residence here is neither permanent nor does it have a definite term; it’s indefinite.
If I move back, where I go to will depend on where I get a job. I have no particular likelihood of returning to D.C. (and if I do, it sounds like I’d better look into the possibility that they could consider me to owe back taxes.)
If I have a “home” in the U.S. in the sense of a place that I “always return to” it’s New York, since my family (mother, brothers and sister) are there and I visit a couple of times a year. With reference to El Mariachi Loco’s post, I could possibly claim a “permanent home” of sorts in the state, since when I am there I stay at my mother’s house.
D.C. sends me my absentee ballot on the basis of my statement that I am a resident. They have never asked me to provide evidence that I still actually reside there. But it sounds like I actually probably do qualify as a resident for federal election purposes, but probably not for District elections or for getting (or renewing) a driver’s license.
The reason I’d think about getting a U.S. license is that someone told me (and I don’t know if this is true or not) that once I return I could have insurance problems if I don’t have an established driving record on a U.S. license. That is, an insurance company will check to see if you have any violations on your license, and if you have no record at all (because of no license) they will give you a higher rate.
(After 11 years of dealing with Panamanian traffic, I don’t know if I’m safer or more dangerous than the average American driver. Sometimes I think I may never be able to drive in the U.S. again because of the “offensive driving” techniques I’ve had to learn to survive here. 
)
Besides that, they look at you real funny when you produce a Panamanian license as proof of ID.
This concept of state “citizenship” is more complex than I ever imagined. Without expressing an opinion that I am not qualified to hold, here for general comment are a couple of websites:
This person/organization (which seems to be part of a general anti-government website) contends that under the original provisions of the U.S. Constitution, a person was primarily a citizen of a state, and that he was a citizen of the United States ONLY as a consequence of his state citizenship. The site further argues that the 14th amendment created a new U.S. citizenship that did not previously exist, and actually conflicts with the original intent of the Constitution. The writer also contends that state court decisions provide that a person may be a citizen of a state WITHOUT being a citizen of the United States.
http://www.dlois.com/realtruth/FreedomStuff/State%20Citizen%20or%20US%20Citizen.htm
This site offers itself as a primary source of information on state citizenship, with numerous links to other citations (far more than I have had time to read):
http://thestatecitizen.freeyellow.com/page2.htm
At first glance, there does not seem to be universal agreement on what constitutes citizenship of the U.S. or of any state, or how the rights and obligations of citizens may be precisely defined. (This all seems to go way beyond “residence” of any kind.) Could someone make some sense of this? Or are these just rantings of political extremists? As a practical matter, do these issues affect me when I renew my driver’s license or pay my taxes? (And I’m not even planning to move anywhere.)
There’s nothing complex about it. The Constitution of the United States of America specifically states that a citizen of the United States is a citizen of the state in which he is resident. Ignore all the guesses posted above and concentrate on the facts.
[rather pointless nitpick]
It’s the DoR, Department of Revenue. Although it can be quite friendly!
[/rather pointless nitpick]
You don’t have to leave the country for this to be a problem. I grew up in Arkansas and have family there, but I have no intention of returning there to live or work in the forseeable future. After college, I moved to Colorado for one year through Americorps. Colorado law states (as I recall) that a person is a resident if they have a job in Colorado or live there more than 30 days. I definitely know that I had 30 days to register my car in Colorado and swap my Arkansas drivers licence for a CO one or be unable to drive. I also registered to vote there. When I got the CO liscence, I swore that I was a CO resident and that I did not claim residence in any other state (thereby giving up AR residence, right?). I never considered CO my “home,” however, and always intended to leave after a year. At the end of the year, I moved to DC, but without my car. I understand that DC allows one to maintain residence in another state indefinitely while living and working in DC. I am a graduate student here in DC, and will leave DC when I graduate, probably in January 2005. I ahve no idea where I will go from there, and don’t consider anywhere to be my “permanent residence.” I have a Colorado drivers liscence (which I recently lost–can I get a new one) and am registered to vote there, but have no address there at which I am even known. (New people live in the house I was in, who may or may not recognize my name.) I explicitly gave up residence in AR (I thought) and don’t reside (legally) in DC. Where am I? (Legally, that is.)
Fine. I think what we are all trying to say is, in light of that bold simple statement, where does that leave those of us who are legal residents of a foreign country.
Again, I am a US citizen. I have a card in my wallet which says I am a fully legal registered resident of Korea. I am an expatriate and qualify for the US federal tax exclusion because I do not maintain my primary residence within the US. I own property in the US. My income is taxed by the state of Michigan. I vote only for Federal elections. What state am I a citizen (or resident) of? I think, legally, none.
Where does it leave you? It leaves you as legally a resident of the state in which you were legally resident upon your departure for parts out country. You can, if you so desire, vote in Michigan elections. Isn’t that what one of the links posted earlier said?
As far as your Korean residency goes, that’s up to Korea to decide.
I only vote in the Presidential election because I only request that absentee ballot. I said I think I could vote local if I wanted to because I could find no way that Michigan would know that I am an expatriate (except the address on my tax return, but I use my US business address for that).
ruadh and j-beda linked to the Federal Voting Assistance Program site earlier. For the record, here’s what they say specifically:
This indicates to me that one has the right to vote not just for president, but for any federal office, including ones from a particular state such as U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative. (Of course, even in a presidential election one is actually voting for the electors from the state, rather than the candidate himself.) This implies to me that one must therefore be considered a citizen of the state of last residence. This is irrespective of whether or not one pays state taxes or maintains any kind
of residence in the state.
However, it would seem that if you want to vote for state offices such as governer or state legislators, one may also become liable for state taxes.
Regarding KenGr’s last point, here is the application form for a DC Absentee Ballot. As you can see, it is extremely simple - you do not have to provide any evidence that you are actually a resident.
I have always filled the application in using my last address, which is the address on my voter registration. I had never been entirely sure this was correct, but from the info on the FVAP site it
appears to be the right thing to do, even though I have not lived there for 11 years.
My conclusions from all this:
-
I am a citizen of the District of Columbia. Because of this, I have a right to vote for federal offices from the district, including for presidential electors and the non-voting District Representative in the House.
-
I am not a resident of DC. I cannot vote for DC local offices. I do not maintain a residence in DC, and do not pay local taxes. I am a legal resident of Panama.
-
In some states, and maybe DC, I might be able to qualify as a resident, depending on local laws, and thereby vote in local elections. However, this might make me liable for local taxes.
OK, I should have said I’m a resident of DC only for federal voting purposes, and not a resident in any other sense.
Just to add another, most likely useless, fact into this thread, under Article 2, section 4 of the New York State Constitution:
As you work for a U.S. Agency (which I’m guessing qualifies as the “service of the United States”), and if you did so when you moved out of New York , you may be eligible to vote as a New York resident.
I think the theory is simple but the practice is something different.
When you start figuring in what elections you are allowed to vote and who you pay taxes to things become more difficult. My parents had some difficulty with this with Arizona. My parents are sunbirds who maintain a residence in Illinois and one in Arizona and rougly split their time 50-50 between the two states. Both of my parents continue to work…my mother as a consultant and my dad as an attorney (he took the bar exam in Arizona which automatically enrolled him in some "Young Attorneys association…my dad was in his 70’s so it was somewhat humorous). Arizona has unfavorable vehicle tax laws so my parents kept their cars in Arizona registered in Illinois that has much lower yearly vehicle tax. I forget the details but so many people were doing this Arizona somehow clamped down so now their cars are registered in Arizona even though my parents are ‘citizens’ of Illinois and have Illinois drivers licenses. Then you get into income taxes. My parents earn money in both states and their taxes are a nightmare to muddle through. In another example IIRC Illinois has some provision to collect income taxes from Indiana residents who work in Illinois. I’m not sure how that works either but the bottom line is that claiming citizenship of this or that state might be simple but managing the ins and outs can be something else entirely.