Residency in the State of Tennesse

[rosalynchauv]

My husband and I will begin full time RVing soon and are considering making Tennessee our residency state because of their extremely cheap automobile insurance rates. We currently live in Louisiana which has the highest rates so auto insurance rates is an important aspect to us of chosing our residency state. I've been able to find out other tax info, costs of registration, etc. but have not seen anywhere that talks about whether Tennessee is "friendy to RVer's flexible lifestyle" like they say South Dakota and Texas are. Has anyone had experience with being an RVer with Tennessee residency or know how friendly they are to our lifestyle needs?

[Medico]

The only thing I have against Tn. is that even though they have no state income tax, they do tax dividends and interest. Retired people would have more of this than actual income in most cases.

Tn. is a very pretty state. Consider Florida as well. The 2 states I have heard discussed most or Texas, Florida, and South Dakota.

[Medico]

By the way,

[Cat320]

Vehicle registration is very cheap...not based on the value of the vehicle.

[DaveTN]

No state income tax here either!

[padre44]

Our insurance in Clarksville went up from where we lived in Virginia.

[DaveTN]

No yearly vehicle inspection in many counties. No luxury taxes as well.

[traveler of california]

Very high sales tax if you were to buy a vehicle.

Nick

[Medico]

Yes right, no state income tax, but they DO TAX dividends and interest.

[wydglydrydr]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "friendly to RVer's lifestyle ," but I believe you're asking whether or not you can claim Tennessee as your domicile while full timing. Most states, in order to grant domicile, require you to establish some form of permanence, such as a driver's license and vehicle registrations. I think your best bet would be to contact the state directly and ask them how (if) you can make Tennessee your domicile without actually residing there.

[Pricejh]

We moved to East Tennessee about three years ago from Washington for work. Fell in love the area and will retire here in three to five years (I'm 64 and working to pay off the house).

Some counties have very low property taxes and the bill for our tags (Subaru, Ram, Trailer and Kawasaki motorcycle) don't come to much more than $100 per year.

There is no income tax on earned income. Frankly, most people don't pay the taxes on interest/dividends either. The system is very antiquated and is't very well advertised.

My sales taxes are fairly high, but really not much, if any, higher than I paid in California or Washington. I paid about 9% back there and am paying aobut 9.25% in Loudon County. The good think is that it is deductable off of my Federal taxes.

To establish residency you will need to find someplace to call home. Preferably fixed. If you are serious about full timing, consider purchasing an empty lot somewhere, putting in a gravel pad, a septic system, water and electric and you have a place to live, centrally located to the eastern seaboard and a nice place to stop and quit rambling 'til you are ready to roam again.

Just saying, I love it here.

[tncruiser]

Originally Posted by Medico

Yes right, no state income tax, but they DO TAX dividends and interest.

its called a "hall tax" and some very high bars before it is levied
sales tax on new vehicles is 9.5 on the first 1350.00 bux then 7% 0n the balance if you come to a county with no wheel tax (a tax only collected by the big city counties that have a high maintenance population) lic plates on year rig 24.00 a year (smart car to 45foot MH)
take a look a crossville tn great golf rv friendly and good mail forwarding service.
brianj

[Trekkers]

We looked very seriously at that question and decided to make Tennessee our domicile.
Pros:
No earned income tax, nor for retirement funds.
Tax on dividends and interest will have minimal application to us.
Vehicle registration very low.
Beautiful state.
Centrally located for us to visit children and grandchildren in Mississippi, N. Carolina and Indiana.
Found beautiful small piece of property with a lake view for low price and will put a gravel pad for parking when we are there, already has sewer and electric.
We don't believe the "voting issue" will be an issue since we will have a valid address and stay on that site for a few months total every year.
Tennessee is rated as one of the lowest total tax burden states.
Total taxes on diesel is fairly low.
No vehicle inspection.
We chose White County which is very low in taxes overall and close to Crossville which was mentioned in a post above. Clarksville, mentioned in another post because of increased insurance rate is near Fort Campbell. Any military base with young GIs is going to have an increased accident rate and hence higher insurance rates. I think you might find it not so high elsewhere but I haven't checked it out for White County yet.
Cons:
High sales tax, so we will not make any major purchases. Expect our rig to last.
Estate tax, so we will try not to die for the next few years as this is being phased out and will terminate in 2014. If we do, it will be someone else's problem, not ours. smile

This is our decision for when we go full time later this year or early next. If we are not satisfied, we can change it. It seemed more natural to us than South Dakota for example.
Irene and Jim

[Pricejh]

Originally Posted by Trekkers

We looked very seriously at that question and decided to make Tennessee our domicile.
Pros:
No earned income tax, nor for retirement funds.
Tax on dividends and interest will have minimal application to us.
Vehicle registration very low.
Beautiful state.
Centrally located for us to visit children and grandchildren in Mississippi, N. Carolina and Indiana.
Found beautiful small piece of property with a lake view for low price and will put a gravel pad for parking when we are there, already has sewer and electric.
We don't believe the "voting issue" will be an issue since we will have a valid address and stay on that site for a few months total every year.
Tennessee is rated as one of the lowest total tax burden states.
Total taxes on diesel is fairly low.
No vehicle inspection.
We chose White County which is very low in taxes overall and close to Crossville which was mentioned in a post above. Clarksville, mentioned in another post because of increased insurance rate is near Fort Campbell. Any military base with young GIs is going to have an increased accident rate and hence higher insurance rates. I think you might find it not so high elsewhere but I haven't checked it out for White County yet.
Cons:
High sales tax, so we will not make any major purchases. Expect our rig to last.
Estate tax, so we will try not to die for the next few years as this is being phased out and will terminate in 2014. If we do, it will be someone else's problem, not ours. smile

This is our decision for when we go full time later this year or early next. If we are not satisfied, we can change it. It seemed more natural to us than South Dakota for example.
Irene and Jim

Welcome home. You're gonna love it here.