How To Handle Voting And Place Of Residence When...

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time, but there were other pressing issues to ask about. I came from a tiny family anyway (no brothers or sisters) and now everyone I spoke to who was local has aged and died off. Since I have taken care of family members 24/7/365 for over seventeen years now and had zero social life I have no close friends I could impose upon to use their address. I take voting extremely seriously and haven't missed a single election since I was 18 (actually because of the way my birthday fell I got to vote in a primary at 17). Not a single one have I missed, even the one that was an uncontested election for school board. I am in a very important swing state too and would hate to give my residence here up because it's always hotly contested and plays out huge in the electoral college.

My plan was when I leave for for my training to sell the house. If I didn't it would be stripped for the copper pipe and wires anyway and be ruined. Basically my plan is to live OTR out of the truck and take home time where ever seemed interesting and I can get to. When you live no place and are basically a modern nomad without a place to call home, where do you register to vote, or for that matter how do you handle giving an address for a driver's license? I just think it would be terribly silly to rent a $400 a month apartment that at most is going to be used two times a year for a couple of days each. I am 41 and retirement is knocking and I don't have enough quarters in Social Security that have much pay to retire on so I need to pile up the cash, so I don't want to waste good money on rent and utilities I am not going to use. The way I figure it I can live good on the road and still bank a lot of cash for the future.

No Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, High School friends?Anyone you could use for a mailing address? I suppose you could get a General Delivery address in your Hometown at the Post Office, then get mail forwarded to a pre determined PO Box near your Home Terminal. That's a tough question.

Check with your local board of elections. Also, have you considered finding a real estate company to rent out your home and manage the rental? That way you have an income, address and someone to watch over the house.

You are going to have to "establish a domicile" SOMEWHERE - for the purpose of license, taxes and voting, etc.

Folks that are going to be 100% "homeless" still have to license to SOME ADDRESS - and that would preferably be in a state that has NO PERSONAL INCOME TAXES. Why pay taxes for services you aren't going to be utilizing?

Something to also note - as it pertains to PER DIEM PAY - and PER DIEM DEDUCTIONS. You need to have SOMEWHERE you can (prove) is "home" for the purposes of taking the per diem deduction from your taxes. This deduction is for expenses when AWAY FROM HOME. Don't have a HOME (even if it's a friend/relative where you get mail, who will say you rent a room from them to establish domicile/residency) - you CANNOT LEGALLY TAKE THE DEDUCTION. This could be problematic if you are with a company that MAKES YOU TAKE PART OF YOUR PAY PER DIEM - as you MAY NOT BE WITHHOLDING ENOUGH TAXES, to cover your tax burden if you CANNOT LEGALLY TAKE THE DEDUCTION. Something to consider - maybe not right this second - but in planning for how you are going to deal with "establishing a domicile" in the future.

There are some states that allow "travelers" (truckers, full time RV'ers) to establish residency/domicile.

Rick

By law you need a physical address on the drivers license. You cannot use a PO box. You are going to have to figure this out.

Also realize that in some states...such as NJ, where I have my license at my.moms...the insurance rate for the other occupants in the house can go up if you do not have car insurance but have a.license in the residence.

When I sell my car, I have to go on my.moms insurance plan. If not, her rates will skyrocket AND when I buy a new car it will triple.

Find someplace cheap to rent a room for $150 per month or something. Prime let's us rent mail boxes from their mail room so my.mail goes there but had to have a physical address.

Also, have you considered finding a real estate company to rent out your home and manage the rental? That way you have an income, address and someone to watch over the house.

No one would rent this house, unfortunately. It needs a lot of work and I have exactly no money to fix it up, not even paint the walls which have twenty years of nicotine stain on them. It's only worth 10-15 thousand.

I am not exaggerating about the house being stripped either. My no good drug head neighbor would see the dumpster I would rent to throw the junk out in (Grandma was a bit of a hoarder), realize I was moving, and as soon as I was seen not to come home for two days tops he would strip everything. He has stripped the only other two neighbor's houses around me. I never seen him or obviously I would have reported him, but it had to be him because they were stripped the day after the one moved and the other died. We live in a "wilderness" area for lack of a better term and there was no one else around to have seen those two events.

@Rainy Do Prime drivers get back to Springfield enough to pick up their mail in a reasonable amount of time?

You are going to have to "establish a domicile" SOMEWHERE - for the purpose of license, taxes and voting, etc.

Folks that are going to be 100% "homeless" still have to license to SOME ADDRESS - and that would preferably be in a state that has NO PERSONAL INCOME TAXES. Why pay taxes for services you aren't going to be utilizing?

Something to also note - as it pertains to PER DIEM PAY - and PER DIEM DEDUCTIONS. You need to have SOMEWHERE you can (prove) is "home" for the purposes of taking the per diem deduction from your taxes. This deduction is for expenses when AWAY FROM HOME. Don't have a HOME (even if it's a friend/relative where you get mail, who will say you rent a room from them to establish domicile/residency) - you CANNOT LEGALLY TAKE THE DEDUCTION. This could be problematic if you are with a company that MAKES YOU TAKE PART OF YOUR PAY PER DIEM - as you MAY NOT BE WITHHOLDING ENOUGH TAXES, to cover your tax burden if you CANNOT LEGALLY TAKE THE DEDUCTION. Something to consider - maybe not right this second - but in planning for how you are going to deal with "establishing a domicile" in the future.

There are some states that allow "travelers" (truckers, full time RV'ers) to establish residency/domicile.

Rick

That is darn good information. There are some things there I never considered, or knew about.

If worse comes to worse I will get one of those new "Tiny Houses" which can be anything from a Yurt, to an RV, to a little miniature house on wheels and find some place legal to stick it.

Problem was solved with the information Rick gave on some states having special provisions for travelers. I Google something along the lines of States with easy residential requirements for travelers and with the help of some R.V. group found it was easy as pie to establish residential status in of all places....FLORIDA. Talk about swing states being important LOL. and no state income tax either. Even gave a list of re-mailers that qualify as street addresses. Looks like we might be "neighbors" Rick.

Problem was solved with the information Rick gave on some states having special provisions for travelers. I Google something along the lines of States with easy residential requirements for travelers and with the help of some R.V. group found it was easy as pie to establish residential status in of all places....FLORIDA. Talk about swing states being important LOL. and no state income tax either. Even gave a list of re-mailers that qualify as street addresses. Looks like we might be "neighbors" Rick.

Mind what I mentioned about "real domiciles" and Per Diem/IRS. From what I hear, they're pretty hip to the remailer thing. This won't be an issue until you're actually getting a paycheck - but if you don't have an AUDIT PROOF RESIDENCE - stay away from per diem PAY if you can, or do some additional withholding so you don't have to come out of pocket come tax time. Payroll dept at whatever company you end up at, can give you what your yearly withholding/gross estimate is going to look like - and you can check that (roughly) against the tax tables to make sure you don't end up, jammed up.

My IRS paperwork goes to my accountant - that's who's listed on returns/correspondence - so if I ever have to justify deductions for per diem, it will no doubt get interesting.

Also - and of EVEN GREATER IMPORTANCE - mind the DOCUMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR CDL LICENSING for whatever states DMV you decide to call "homeless/home". They may require "proof of address" that goes beyond what a remailer can provide (leases, utilities in your name, etc.). Florida, at least - is a lot stricter on CDL stuff than regular operators licenses. You have to show up to renew and bring all your docs every time - PITA.

Rick