Retire to a no-tax state. Make it stick.
Relocating in retirement, or splitting the year between two states, can save thousands on pension and retirement-account income. But only if your day count and domicile evidence hold up. Tax Days tracks days in every state you spend time in and builds the contemporaneous record your old state's auditor will ask for.
What you're up against
Your old state still wants to tax your pension
Move from a high-tax state to Florida, Texas, or Nevada and your former state may argue you never truly left, keeping your IRA withdrawals, pension, and capital gains on its rolls. Federal law bars states from taxing the pensions of former residents, but they can still claim you're a current resident.
Spend too many days and you snap back to resident
States like NY, NJ, MA, and CT can treat you as a full-year statutory resident if you keep a home there and spend 183 or 184+ days in-state, regardless of where you claim domicile. Every retirement dollar then becomes taxable to that state.
Half a year in each home is the danger zone
Many retirees split time roughly 50/50. That's exactly where a few uncounted days, a grandchild's birthday, a doctor's visit, a layover, can push you over a threshold you didn't know you were near.
Medicare IRMAA and state taxes both follow residency
Your state of residence drives state income tax on Social Security and pensions, and your overall income picture drives Medicare IRMAA surcharges. Getting domicile right is part of a coordinated retirement-income plan, not an afterthought.
What Tax Days does for you
Tracks days in your old state, your new home state, and anywhere you travel during the year.
Projects the exact date you'd cross your old state's threshold (183 or 184 days) so you can leave a day early.
Sends alerts weeks ahead, so a holiday visit to the grandkids never quietly tips you into statutory residency.
Builds the affirmative day-count evidence that supports a Florida, Texas, or Nevada domicile claim.
Exports an audit-ready PDF per state, day count, trips, and rule evaluations, to hand your accountant or estate attorney.
Helps you keep retirement income (pensions, IRA/401(k) withdrawals, Social Security) out of reach of a high-tax former state.
Stays on your iPhone. No servers, no accounts, no tracking. Optional iCloud sync between devices.
The rules you actually need to track
Domicile vs. statutory residency
The two ways a state can tax you. Establishing a new domicile is not enough if you still trip the day-count test in your old state.
Read the guide →Florida domicile guide
Declaration of Domicile, driver's license, voter registration, homestead exemption, the affirmative ties that anchor a no-tax retirement.
Read the guide →New York 184-day rule
Keep a NY home and spend 184+ days there and you're a statutory resident, taxable on all retirement income. The most-audited rule in the country.
Read the guide →State taxes on Social Security & pensions
Most states don't tax Social Security, and many exempt pensions, but the rules vary widely. Where you're a resident decides which apply.
Read the guide →Texas & Nevada: no-income-tax retirement
No state income tax means no state tax on pensions, IRAs, or Social Security. What it takes to make the move defensible.
Read the guide →Defending a residency audit
What departing retirees should expect, evidence requests, the day-count reconstruction, and the four pillars of audit defense.
Read the guide →
Free guides and tools
- Guide
Snowbird tax tracker guide
The full playbook for retirees splitting time, domicile vs. statutory residency, the day-count rules, common mistakes.
- Guide
State taxes on retirement income
How states treat Social Security, pensions, and IRA/401(k) withdrawals, and why your residency decides the bill.
- Calculator
Free 183-day rule calculator
Set your old state's threshold (183 or 184 days) and see the projected date you'd cross into statutory residency.
- Guide
What records auditors actually accept
Contemporaneous logs vs. after-the-fact reconstructions, and why the difference can decide an audit.
Common questions
I retired to Florida. Can my old state still tax me?
It can try, if you kept ties. States like New York can tax you as a statutory resident if you keep a home there and cross the day threshold, or argue you never changed domicile at all. The defense is a real move plus a day log that proves where you were.
Is the '6 months and a day' rule enough?
It's the right instinct but not the whole test. You generally need to stay under the old state's day threshold and show your domicile genuinely moved: home, doctors, community, the center of your life. Courts look at the whole picture, not just the calendar.
Do part days count when I visit my old state?
Usually yes: in New York and many other states, any part of a day generally counts as a full day, including a lunch stop on the drive through. Count conservatively and keep the evidence.
How long do I need to keep proving my move?
Audits can look back years, and the first two or three years after a move are the most scrutinized. Keep tracking days after the move, not just during the moving year; a continuing record is what makes the change stick.
Retire to a no-tax state, and keep it that way
Tax Days runs the day count your accountant runs, all year long. $19.99/year is a rounding error next to the tax on a single year of pension and IRA income.
