This is Olivier Wagner writing about the life of a Tax Digi-Nomad. As a tax advisor who travels the world with my tax practice, one of the questions that often arise is how to receive mail as I travel from country to country with my tax practice. When I moved to Montreal, I opened a mailbox in Walnut, CA that scans mail for you. In most cases, I just receive the pdf and ask to destroy the original. It works like magic to have your mail scanned daily and emailed to you.

In instances in which I need the original, they forward, and then I can receive it in my favorite co-working space (The Hive). When in Georgia (the country), there is a service USA2Georgia which forwards mail and I pick it up at their headquarters. The credit cards, airline lounge access cards, physical goods are forwarded that way.

Someone once asked me “Do you have clothes forwarded to you?” This could be done, not that I am willing to do to it. Of course, if you are going to order from aliexpress.com you can have it delivered wherever you are (products Made in China straight from the manufacturer, worldwide delivery – you can get free shipping but then I suspect it might be too slow). Things get tricky if I move too often.

The state where you were previously a resident will continue to see you as being a resident there unless and until you sever your ties with that state (although many do offer some relief, either safe harbor allowing you to be treated as a non-resident, allow some foreign tax credit, allow the foreign earned income exclusion but some do not offer any relief). Yes, Pennsylvania, I am looking at you.

California is looking at domicile which is based on the intent of coming back to California¹. The following states: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not have income tax (although New Hampshire does have a tax on dividends and interest).

Common steps to move your residence to another state include registering to vote in the new state, getting a driving license in that state and maintaining a mailing address there. While these are not necessarly sufficient, and a determination is to be done on a case-by-case basis, one can move with these if they do not have any other ties to the previous state². Obtaining a driving license usually requires an actual visit.

I am still a resident of New York (not as good as a no-income tax state, but they treat me as a non-resident based on the 548 days rule). To establish an address in a no income tax state, you could also use any of the following services. One would need a notarized copy of their ID in order to open such a mailbox (PS Form 1583).

TaxConnections CEO Kat Jennings did a considerable amount of research and identified the very lowest cost in Virtual Mailboxes which is Traveling Mail at https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=163 .There are  others more expensive if you want to look in other locations. The owner Travis is very nice and offers a high quality/low cost trusted virtual mail service.

Contact me at owagner@1040abroad.com if I may be of assistance to you in doing your tax return.

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¹ Section 17014(a) of the California Revenue and Taxation Code defines a “resident” as either “every individual domiciled in this state who is outside the state for a temporary or transitory purpose” or “every individual who is in this state for other than a temporary or transitory purpose.”

² This article is mostly focused on people with little to no ties anywhere: lives outside the US and have their assets outside the US as well – and don’t claim to be a resident of the former state when dealing with it. I once had someone who spends more than 183 days a year in California ask me how to become a Texas resident ; sorry, that’s not the way it works.

Olivier Wagner– TaxConnections Tax Advisor/1040 Abroad

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