Minnesota Supreme Court rules on "Snowbirds": 26 Factors!

Hey Snowbirds, You’ll Want To Know About This New Residency Ruling

Excerpt:

Minnesota residents who live part-time in another state could still get slapped with a hefty income tax bill.

That’s after a 4-3 court ruling that further defines what’s meant by the residency law.

One Minnesota couple will have to cough up $390,000 in income taxes because their claim of non-residency was rejected.

Indeed, parts of the ruling are a chilling reminder to those shedding taxes for sunshine.

Tax attorney Barry Gersick advises anyone splitting time between states to seek counsel before deciding on residency status.

It’s more complicated than just spending over half a year, or 183 days, in your resident state.

“They really try to determine if somebody really did in fact change domiciles, change the center of their life away from Minnesota to somewhere else, or did they just do it in name only,” Gersick said.

Minnesota Department of Revenue uses 26 different factors for determining residency status. And they’re not all that obvious.

Revenue is looking for your focal point, where your most active bank accounts are located and where your kids go to school. They’ll check where you buy resident sporting licenses and title your vehicles.

They’ll also look at where you own the most property and get most mail.

“It helps to have an attorney or accountant in one of the two states advise you,” Gersick said.

The state can even factor in where you attend church and maintain the most business contacts when deciding on residency.

Comment: Link to the ruling in the article. My brother-in-law has domiciled to Florida while maintaining a home in the Twin Cities

Tax collectors chase rich New Yorkers moving to low-tax states. Auditors inspect cell records, even your dog's vet bills https://t.co/xi4QVGnW3m

— James Peet (@jrpeet) March 8, 2019

Retiree Tax Map - The Lure of the Sunshine State

Kiplinger State-by-State Guide to Taxes on Retirees

Florida

Minnesota

Comments:

• My wife was raised in Florida (born in Mattoon WI)
• Kathee graduated from Florida State
• I met her in Florida and we were married there
• Our first several years of married life were in Tampa
• Kathee has a brother who lives north of Tampa and
• Another brother just changed his domicile to Florida to escape Minnesota taxes
• I've been retired for 5 months and Kathee is set to retire in May 2016
• Not paying state income taxes is quite and attraction

If New York would cut taxes and regulations, maybe it could compete with Florida again, writes @SenRickScott. https://t.co/Lb8o9FtwjW

— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) March 21, 2019

Florida Sun and Fun

We returned last night from our Florida trip. We had a relaxing time and it was good to get away from the cold for almost a week.

• Thursday February 21st.
  • We flew to Orlando Thursday morning. Sun Country.
  • We rented a car (a brand new 2013 Toyota Highlander - only had 4000 m on odometer)
    
    
  • and drove to Inverness, Florida to spend the evening with Kathee's Brother Dan.
    
    
  • Along the way we stopped for lunch in Zellwood, Florida
  • We spent the night at a Holiday Inn in Lecanto, Florida.
• Friday February 22nd:
• We had breakfast with Dan at the Cinnamon Sticks Restaurant in Inverness and then drove down to Saint Petersburg
  
  
• We drove by Kathee's old haunts in Saint Petersburg:
  • Her old High School, Church, Elementary School, and Junior High
  • Saint Pete Junior College, where she received her associate's degree
  • And her childhood home. When her parents sold this home and we were newly-weds, we briefly considered buying it.
• We had lunch at the famous Ted Peter's smoked fish restaurant. One of our very first dates nearly 40 years ago was here. We both had smoked mullet.
  
  
• We drove south across the SunShine Skyway bridge and onto Naples where we dropped the rental car.
  
  
  
  
  
• Kathee's brother and sister in law picked us up and we spent the remainder of the time with them.
• Friday night we went to the local Knight's of Columbus for a Lenten fish fry
• Saturday February 23rd:
  • We stayed 4 nights at the Bear's Paw country club community. Kathee's Brother Dave is a resident of Edina but he and his wife spend 4-5 months at their 2 bedroom condo in Naples.
  • Saturday afternoon cousins from the Fort Meyers area visited. Good to connect with them after so many years.
  • We all had lunch in the Bear's Paw clubhouse
• Sunday February 24th:
• After worship we drove out to the Ava Maria community, home of Ava Maria University.
• My take on Ava Maria (the city) and U:
• The U is approximately the Catholic equivalent of Northland Baptist Bible College - except Tom Monaghan and mega-bucks is behind it. He has invested $ 350,000,000 in this.
• And while Northland is in the boondocks of the Wisconsin wilderness, Ava Maria is the the boondocks - wilderness of South-Central Florida.
• But while Northland has no supporting community surrounding it, Ava Maria U has Ava Maria city with shops, schools, and housing.

• Monday February 25th:
• We explored old Naples via auto (Dave's Cadillac)
• And then drove across the Tamiami Trail from Naples ¾ to Miami
  
  
• To Shark Valley in the Everglades. We did the 2 hour tram tour. 
  
• We had lunch in Everglades City, Florida. I had mystery (???) fried fish. The waitress said it was grouper but I'm sure it was not.  We were about to have lunch at the Rod and Gun Club but all of our cash was in Kathee's purse and she left it back at the condo. And the club was cash only. But we toured around the lobby and main floor and that was interesting. Everglades City seems to me to be analogous in remoteness Southern-style to a place like Boy River MN Northern-style.



• We drove back to Naples and had dinner at the Dock at Crayton Cove. We dined along side majestic yachts and dreamed! I had the grouper ... confirming that the mystery fish from lunch was definitely NOT grouper.
  
  
• Tuesday February 26th:
• Dave and Colleen served us bacon and eggs for breakfast
• Dave toured me around Bear's Paw on his golf cart. Bear's Paw is home to the first Jack Nicklaus Signature Course Community in Florida. A golfer's delight
  
  
• After lunch we were driven to the Fort Meyer's airport. We flew home on discount airline Spirit Air. (Greyhound of the skies!)
• Our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours. We left at approximately 4:45 p.m. Eastern. We were in our car at Park N Fly at 8:00 p.m. Central and to our home at 8:30.

It really felt good to be home. My king-sized bed beats any mattress I slept in on the trip. And the cool Minnesota air was a nice break from the humid heat of South Florida! Today I returned to the office! But I was glad to get away for six days!

Short sleaves

Huguenots: Long before the Pilgrims

A French Connection

Excerpt:

TO commemorate the arrival of the first pilgrims to America’s shores, a June date would be far more appropriate, accompanied perhaps by coq au vin and a nice Bordeaux. After all, the first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the “New World” were French. And they beat their English counterparts by 50 years. That French settlers bested the Mayflower Pilgrims may surprise Americans raised on our foundational myth, but the record is clear.

Long before the Pilgrims sailed in 1620, another group of dissident Christians sought a haven in which to worship freely. These French Calvinists, or Huguenots, hoped to escape the sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants that had bloodied France since 1560.

Landing in balmy Florida in June of 1564, at what a French explorer had earlier named the River of May (now the St. Johns River near Jacksonville), the French émigrés promptly held a service of “thanksgiving.” Carrying the seeds of a new colony, they also brought cannons to fortify the small, wooden enclosure they named Fort Caroline, in honor of their king, Charles IX.

In short order, these French pilgrims built houses, a mill and bakery, and apparently even managed to press some grapes into a few casks of wine. At first, relationships with the local Timucuans were friendly, and some of the French settlers took native wives and soon acquired the habit of smoking a certain local “herb.” Food, wine, women — and tobacco by the sea, no less. A veritable Gallic paradise.

Except, that is, to the Spanish, who had other visions for the New World. In 1565, King Philip II of Spain issued orders to “hang and burn the Lutherans” (then a Spanish catchall term for Protestants) and dispatched Adm. Pedro Menéndez to wipe out these French heretics who had taken up residence on land claimed by the Spanish — and who also had an annoying habit of attacking Spanish treasure ships as they sailed by.

Leading this holy war with a crusader’s fervor, Menéndez established St. Augustine and ordered what local boosters claim is the first parish Mass celebrated in the future United States. Then he engineered a murderous assault on Fort Caroline, in which most of the French settlers were massacred. Menéndez had many of the survivors strung up under a sign that read, “I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to heretics.” A few weeks later, he ordered the execution of more than 300 French shipwreck survivors at a site just south of St. Augustine, now marked by an inconspicuous national monument called Fort Matanzas, from the Spanish word for “slaughters.”

Comment: The entire Op-Ed piece from the NYTimes is worthwhile. Further details available here and here.

Florida ‘train wreck’ scenario

Sen. Bill Nelson paints Florida ‘train wreck’ scenario

Excerpt:

Nelson sent a letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean Thursday asking the committee to either accept the Jan. 29 results of the primary election or pay for a redo of the elections, which could cost in the range of $20 million. He sent the letter after Dean did not return his telephone call Wednesday.

“If they go to the Democratic Convention and stiff-arm the Florida delegations, how in the world do you think Floridians are going to support the Democratic nominee on Nov. 4?” Nelson told reporters Thursday. “It’s in everybody’s interest to find a solution to this problem.”

However, earlier in the day, Dean said the party would not pay for any do-over.

“We can’t afford to do that,” Dean stated on CBS’s “Early Show.” “That’s not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race.”


Newt from 2/14: Newt: the makings of a Democratic civil war

Comment: The Democrats = the party of disorganization! Fascinating! They made the rules, then broke their own rules and now can't figure out how to resolve it!