Two Homes at Once--Questions
 

We just bought a house in The Villages and will be closing in January. We also own a home in Nevada. I will be living in The Villages for approximately 7 months per year until my wife retires. She will be living in our Nevada home for 9 months per year because of her job. We would like to homestead the Florida home because the taxes are more expensive there. From what I have heard, you can only homestead one home--that's fine. My question is what to do with our two cars. Should we register and insure one car in Florida and one in Nevada or can we register both in Florida even though she will be spending 9 months per year in Nevada? Florida car insurance is much cheaper, so we would like to register both cars there. We will appreciate any information that you have to share. Thanks.

I don't know what Nevada requires for residency. I know that NY/NJ "claim" you if you live there for more than 6 months. Which is why people that snowbird in FL and claim a Florida Residence have to document that they spend 6 months and a day out of either state otherwise New York and/or NJ get their pound of flesh. Not as important for retirees though.

As far as I know however, Nevada doesn't have a state income tax. Florida doesn't either. This sorta means that the rules are different and neither one wants a piece of you. You claim to live wherever you want.

That said, they probably DO have rules on how long you can live in the state and run out of state plates, I think it's 30 days if you do move your residence. Seems to me that you'll need to have your car and your license in FL and hers in Nevada. In practice, there are always millions of out of state plates in Florida, so the chance of anyone getting worked up about it are pretty low.

I have a little bit different problem in that we're not moved yet but plan to in 21. This affects my wife's medical because we're not full time Floridians until we get the NJ house sold. I can wing it with my employer a little easier than her Medicare plan. Once we're there full time, it's easy, it's just the transition that's more difficult since we're going back and forth for a bit.

Where will you be keeping each car?

I think I would talk to an automobile insurance rep.

I've been in this exact situation though in another state. I registered both in Florida, along with the homestead exemption and my IRS taxes - no state tax in FLA. No problem at all.

We split our time between NY and FL. We used to drive but now we fly.

Our cars remain in NY but we bought a car which remains in FL. Registered and plated in FL. Of course it is the only car I own with heated seats. You do not need a FL drivers license to register a car in FL. It's on a different ins company because my home company does not sell in FL.

Check with your ins company, if you are away from FL for an extended time, like 6+ months and the car is garaged, you can put your ins into vacation/storage mode.

Most states require you to re-register a car if it is in a new state longer than 30 days, probably for tax purposes. Nobody will probably call you out on that unless your in an accident or you really **** some off.

If you check with your insurance agent, they will tell you that the car should be registered and insured in the state where it is garaged.

One issue that I had was that both spouses that are listed on the property deed need to have FL drivers licenses. If only 1 does, they give you a partial homestead exemption. We were able to get around this when I told the clerk that my spouse needs to keep DL in our home state. She said, "truck driver"? Sure. It worked and we were able to get the full homestead. Mind you, we both live here full time and don't have a home elsewhere so I'm not cheating the system.

I think the car insurance will relate to where the car is garaged the most.

As already mentioned, your car should be insured and registered in the state were it is primarily garaged. The key is insurance. Either state will be happy to take your registration fees. You just don’t want to risk having an insurance claim denied because you misrepresented where your vehicle is garaged for the majority of the time. We have two vehicles registered and insured up north and one in Florida. Our Florida car would be worthless up north in the winter, but I do sometimes drive it north In May and take it back to Florida in September so I can enjoy the convertible up north during the summer.

Getting back to OP question, if you want to get homestead tax reduction you will have to establish Florida residency. That involves registering to vote here, changing your drivers license and in some cases changing your medical insurance. Bank account and IRS address info to prove that you are a permanent resident.

Our primary home is in The Villages but we also have a vacation lakehouse in Georgia. When we insured the car the insurance form asked where the cars were primarily kept (Florida). For y the boat (Georgia)

Google Homesteading in FL. You will get the necessary information.

The day we closed on our house we went to the Annex/Library on Powell and got a new driver's license, registered to vote, applied for our homestead exemption, and registered our car. They go out and inspect the car. We also got a library card. One stop shop.

We had gotten insurance for car and house from The Villages Insurance.

Our Wisconsin house and car are still insured in Wisconsin , which is much cheaper than Florida. The Florida car goes back and forth. Wisconsin car stays in Wisconsin.

To get the homestead exemption we had to give up our Wisconsin exemption, which allowed us to take the state lottery credit on our property taxes. No other benefit.
We needed a letter from our county treasurer to prove we made the change before Florida gave us the exemption.

The 6 month rule does not apply to the homestead exemption, just the state income tax. However, if we work in Wisconsin when we are there we still have to pay Wisconsin state income tax.

Another point the OP may want to consider is sales tax on the car. If the owner has had a vehicle less than 2 years there could be some sales tax implications when establishing FL title. I encourage you to contact the county for specifics if you think this may apply to you.

I was told yesterday that I have to have a Florida drivers license before homestead can be done here. Has to be done before Jan.
1 of the year you plan to homestead. There’s a whole list of other requirement as well. Tax collectors office has all the info.
You’ll love it here, so worth the effort!