There is no New York exit tax. What exists is a well-funded residency-audit program at the Department of Taxation and Finance that routinely examines high-income taxpayers who change their address to Florida. Understanding the two tests it applies is the whole game.
Test one: domicile
Domicile is the one place you intend to be your permanent home. New York's audit guidelines weigh five primary factors:
- Home: a comparison of the New York and Florida residences in size, value and use. Keeping a large Manhattan apartment and buying a small Florida condo is a red flag; the reverse is persuasive.
- Active business involvement: where you actually run your business or practice.
- Time: where you spend your days, with a contemporaneous log.
- Near and dear items: the art, the heirlooms, the safe-deposit box, the dog.
- Family: where your spouse and minor children live and go to school.
Secondary factors (license, voter registration, vehicles, doctors, clubs, religious affiliation, the address on wills and returns) matter but don't decide the case alone.
Test two: statutory residency (the 183-day rule)
Even if your domicile is clearly Florida, New York treats you as a resident for the year if you (a) maintain a permanent place of abode in New York for substantially all of the year and (b) spend more than 183 days in New York. Any part of a day in New York counts, with narrow exceptions for medical confinement and pure travel through the state. New York City applies the same test for its resident income tax.
This is why many families sell or significantly downsize the New York home: without a permanent place of abode, the 183-day test doesn't apply, and the case rests on domicile alone.
What the audit looks like
- A residency questionnaire, often triggered by the first nonresident or part-year return.
- Requests for cell-phone location records, credit-card statements, E-ZPass and travel records to verify the day count.
- Questions about where the "near and dear" items went and where the family spends holidays.
Prepared families treat this as paperwork, not drama, because their records match the story.
The clean-move checklist for New Yorkers
- Buy the Florida home first and make it the larger, primary residence.
- File a Declaration of Domicile, get a Florida license, register to vote, apply for homestead. See how to establish Florida residency.
- Sell or downsize the New York home if you can; if you keep it, keep New York days well under 183 and log them.
- Move the near and dear items, the doctors, the clubs and the estate documents.
- File a part-year IT-203 for the year of the move with a CPA who handles New York residency audits regularly.
What Florida gives you
No state income tax (New York's top rate is about 10.9%, plus up to about 3.9% for New York City residents), no estate tax (New York's has a "cliff" that can tax the entire estate), no inheritance tax. See the New York to Boca Raton guide.
Why Boca Raton, specifically
South Florida has a dozen luxury markets. Relocating families keep choosing Boca Raton because it combines things the others split up: a real downtown (Mizner Park, Royal Palm Place, the Boca Raton Museum of Art and The Boca Raton resort), five miles of mostly uncrowded beach, a dense cluster of private golf and yacht clubs, strong public and private schools, two international airports within about 30 minutes, a Brightline station for Miami and Orlando, and an executive airport for private aviation right in the city.
East Boca Raton, east of I-95 and especially east of Federal Highway, is where most relocating buyers at the top of the market settle: the deep-water estates of Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, the Intracoastal homes of Lake Rogers Isle, the walkable Golden Triangle, the private-club life at St Andrews Country Club, and the oceanfront and Intracoastal condominiums along A1A and downtown.
This page is general information for people considering a move to Boca Raton. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Rates, exemptions and deadlines change; verify current figures with a CPA or attorney licensed in the states involved.
