No matter where you live in the world, so long as you are a US citizen, you will owe US federal taxes. However after a year or so of not living in GA, we consulted an accountant and were told that there is no obligation to continue paying taxes in a state we no longer reside in, despite it having been the last state we lived in.
Maybe that advice is true for Georgia, but it would be too broad to infer to *any* state...
https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/blog/tax-for-expats-state-taxation/
I'm still interested in your case, though. Do you not vote somewhere in the US? Do you have no US accounts, investment, savings, or otherwise? Has your US driver's license expired? Residency is a fuzzy thing, and states have incentive to "recognize" you--any of those things could be noticed.
Then, there is the other concept of domicile, vs. residency...
https://www.form8621.com/expat-moves/
Great links. Thanks for sharing. Just spent the last half hour reading through them.
Pasted from the first article:
1. Determine if you’re a resident of the state, or if the state considers you a resident for tax purposes. This would be determined by the following:
- You lived in the state at any point during the tax year.
- Your immediate family lives in the state while you’re overseas.
- You return to the state each time you return to the US to live.
- You maintain an abode in the state (a permanent place of residence).
- You keep your driver’s license or ID card or voting rights in the state.
^^^These are all good points for the OP to consider for sure. I can say, for us, that the answer is no to all of the above. I also will caveat that a lot of these blog articles are written to foment fear of getting something wrong, and drive business in the door for their advice.
From my DIY perspective, it seems clear that our domicile is in Spain. I'm sure a revenue-hungry tax commissioner may try to argue it another way, but all we can do is make our best effort (within the bounds of our understanding of the law) and go from there. If GA for some reason decides to audit me someday, I feel comfortable defending our actions. Mostly because the bottom line is we left the state in 2015, and have no intention of moving back.
If you make decisions like a person normally would when re-establishing a domicile somewhere, then I think most of the "have your cake and eat it too" situations resolve themselves. i.e. sell the car(s), sell the house or turn it into a legitimate rental property, set up your life in your new home as if it were forever, etc.
To answer the rest of your questions:
Voting - we did vote absentee in the 2016 presidential election - also the last year we filed GA state taxes. I've actually been trying to research how we can vote in 2020 without having a home state, but don't really have a clue yet - maybe the topic for another thread? We haven't voted in any state/local elections.
US Accounts - sure nearly everything is in the US, and we transfer money over as required - everything is online banking now, so I hadn't even considered the concept of which brick and mortar bank we initiated the accounts in. Thanks to your links this is a weak spot in our "termination of domicile" that I am going to look into. Good info. We do have a Spanish bank account that we use for everything over here.
Driver's License Expiration - my wife's yes; mine is still valid for a few more years (10 year license). We both have Spanish drivers' licenses though, and that was a priority with establishing a new domicile in mind. Maybe I need to have a notary witness me sacrificing the plastic card just to be on the safe side :-)
reeshau, what has your experience been? Did I see you're in Ireland, or did I imagine that? Can you share your general work/residency/former state/tax setup? Generally what is your living situation: retired, working remotely, etc? I'm always curious to learn how other expats are dealing with these issues.