Originally Posted by
cruisr
You can't just declare FL your official residence. You actually have to live there for at least 6 months and one day per year. There are 6 other states that have no income tax including TX where MMS and VFTW now live.
As Ben grew up in the TPA area I would guess he probably kept his family home address on his DL and other official documents.
Of course you can just declare your residence somewhere for tax purposes. Whether it is legally correct for you to do so is a separate question. I'm not aware of any tax law that says just keeping it where your parents live is actually a legal reason to treat yourself as a resident of that state if you (1) do not primarily reside in that state or (2) intend to return to that state permanently.
Also note I did not specifically refer to Ben (though the last state he was domiciled in was Washington). There is at least one other major blogger who sometimes claims to live in Florida (and sometimes New York), and I'd be shocked if taxes didn't play a role.