There\u2019s seemingly no escape from New York \u2013 the New York tax man, that is.<\/p>\n
The Empire State is \u201cextremely aggressive\u201d in chasing down wealthy people who attempt to escape high taxes with moves to Florida and beyond \u2013 and that could escalate as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani works to increase taxes on top earners, experts told The Post.<\/p>\n
Many New Yorkers who mull a move believe it\u2019s enough to follow the \u201csix-months-and-a-day\u201d rule, which maintains you\u2019re a resident if you spend 184 days or more in New York, not including airport layovers and hospital stays.<\/p>\n
In reality, New York State law requires people to go a lot further to establish their domicile elsewhere, according to experts. That entails updating their driver\u2019s license, voter registration, bank accounts and mailing subscriptions to their new address, whether that\u2019s in Florida or another state. On top of that each state has its own requirements, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York is an extremely aggressive state when it comes to state income taxes. They do not like people leaving and they will do whatever they can to trap you back into the New York tax net,\u201d Christine Concepcion, an attorney who advises on international and domestic tax matters, told The Post. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t something that you do overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mamdani\u2019s push for a 2% city income tax hike on millionaires <\/a>\u2014 which would raise the rate to 5.9%, on top of federal and state taxes \u2014 lies at the heart of his socialist agenda. At least some of the increased revenue will likely be funneled back into auditing and tax enforcement, experts told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way it\u2019s done in a socialist country like Belarus, where I\u2019m from originally, you increase the taxes and you also allocate more money to enforcement,\u201d said Tatiana Tsoir, an accountant and chief executive of Linza Advisors.<\/p>\n New York is a uniquely aggressive state when it comes to tax collection, experts told The Post. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n New York auditors are already exacting \u2013 which Jon Hoff and his wife, Kathleen Ocorr-Hoff, found out the hard way when they were left on the hook for a $60,000 New York tax bill<\/a> after they bought a $1 million Naples condo.\u00a0<\/p>\n They registered their vehicles, updated their voting registrations, started a business, held bank accounts, owned hunting and fishing licenses and moved their ski equipment and crystal collection to Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n But they kept cashing their paychecks in New York and didn\u2019t give up their local country club memberships \u2013 enough evidence to leave them subject to New York taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed a 2% tax hike on the city\u2019s top earners. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n The couple challenged the tax bill, then appealed a ruling that the Hoffs had to pay up \u2014 but that court decision was ultimately upheld. The couple\u2019s attorneys did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n New York even chases after people living in other states who work remotely for New York-headquartered companies \u2013 known as the \u201cconvenience of the employer\u201d rule \u2013 especially as more people switched to remote work and moved out of state during the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cOur organization represented someone who lived and worked in Missouri and tried to file a discrimination claim against his New York-based employer, and New York said that they weren\u2019t responsible for that\u2026but then New York also said he still owed them income tax,\u201d said Andrew Wilford, senior policy analyst at National Taxpayers Union Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The client ultimately avoided forking over New York state taxes because he didn\u2019t spend a single day at the office that year. Just one trip to the building for a holiday party would\u2019ve meant he owed taxes, Wilford told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were to move to Florida, what I would also do is get a reciprocal license in Florida,\u201d Tsoir said of her CPA license. \u201cBecause if you\u2019re not licensed in Florida and you claim to live there, it\u2019s kind of strange.\u201d<\/p>\n Many Florida transplants are simply trying to skirt around tax rules, experts told The Post. Syda Productions \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Proving residency in a new state could entail buying a cemetery plot, opening a safety deposit box, obtaining a fishing license, finding a new local place of worship or moving artwork, jewelry and sentimental items like wedding photos to your new residence, whether that\u2019s in Florida or any other state.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAn easy case is if somebody runs a construction company in New York but then also has a home in Florida,\u201d said Randall Fox, partner at Kirby McInerney, a New York law firm. \u201cA construction company is very site-specific, right? So you got to actually be there to do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n For people with school-aged children, auditors will also often check where their kids are enrolled in school.<\/p>\n The state Department of Taxation and Finance did not immediately answer a request for comment.<\/p>\n While New York auditors are especially dogged, it\u2019s also true that many so-called Florida residents aren\u2019t truly moving to the Sunshine State \u2014 they\u2019re just trying to skirt tax rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York loses a resident on net every 2 minutes and 23 seconds, according to research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cIf they\u2019re New Yorkers, they have to pay the taxes like the rest of us and pay for the same services we all have to pay for, and I\u2019m not trying to subsidize the people who decide to spend half the year in Florida,\u201d Fox told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n When combined with statewide rates as high as 10.9%, Mamdani\u2019s 2% tax hike could see New York\u2019s wealthiest residents facing state and local income taxes as high as 16.8% even before federal taxes, according to Wilford.<\/p>\n Higher taxes could speed up the rate at which New Yorkers have been fleeing the state. New York already loses a resident on net every 2 minutes and 23 seconds<\/a>, according to Wilford\u2019s research.<\/p>\n That poses a serious threat to the New York state budget, which will have $3.8 billion less 2025 tax revenue<\/a> to work with because of outmigration, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation estimated.<\/p>\n More high-income New Yorkers started moving to Florida during the pandemic and brought their wealth with them, experts said. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cEverything we\u2019ve seen so far from Mayor Mamdani suggests that he is not concerned with the trends that we\u2019re seeing with New York state broadly and New York City as well, where people are headed out because they\u2019re sick and tired of being overtaxed,\u201d Wilford told The Post.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n Despite high taxes, New York\u2019s millionaire population has continued to grow. But the state\u2019s share of income millionaires has plummeted from a high of 12.7% of the national total in 2010 to 8.7% in 2022, according to Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you think about what tax rates people should pay, high earners are disproportionately sensitive to tax increases,\u201d Wilford said. \u201cThey pay more tax, so they notice an increase of 1% in their tax bill is a lot more money if you\u2019re making a lot more money.\u201d<\/p>\n Wealthy residents are more sensitive to tax increases when it comes to moving out of state, according to Wilford. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n Wealthier individuals also have more resources, so it\u2019s easier for them to sell their house, buy another one and move across state lines, he added.<\/p>\n Nearly 900,000 people total left New York state between 2021 and 2024, according to an Empire Center analysis<\/a> of US Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n