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I know a number of you retain residences in the US of A in states with no income tax.
We we haul ass we aren't intending to have any address here unless we absolutely have to, which means we will probably have one.....
So, I am wondering with the font of knowledge here and without re-inventing the wheel how those of you with no other residence other than in MX manage?
I sure would like to avoid state tax when i am not a resident of said state(CA).
All ears! uh, eyes!

Psst; just discussed.


This is one of those times when you'd have to have read the thread to know it was in there; thread title was about driver licenses.

If you want to completely divorce yourself from the U.S., you won't need a residency there....but, of you want to keep a bank account, credit card, or auto-deposit pension checks, you'll need a U.S. address.

We use "Your Best Address", (link in the above mentioned thread).

You'll also need a U.S. phone number for banking. We subscribed to Skype and use the phone number from them as our U.S. phone number of record.

Ahh, no wonder my search didn't turn anything up! Who'd a thunk?

I really don't think we need a US address... we are in with both feet... isn't anything real here to bring us back.
Simplification is the key for us.

Simplification is a key to life here and one I am still learning to implement...

Originally Posted by soulpatch

I really don't think we need a US address... we are in with both feet... isn't anything real here to bring us back.
Simplification is the key for us.

SP, there's a whole gamut of other things you don't think of, or aren't aware of up front. For example, many employers/former employers/retirement benefits payers will not accept a foreign address for benefit payouts, correspondence, W-2's, etc.

The Mexican Postal system is notorious for not being as dependable as the USPS! Historically, since 1999, my mail....going both directions....has taken 3-4 weeks to the 12th of Never to get delivered. So depending on the importance & timeliness of any correspondence you may expect to receive, take that into account. Kate has had better service with a street address in town, but my history is with an in-town P.O. Box.

Social Security will accept a Mexican mailing address & will pay (pesos only) into a Mexican bank account, but there are some things they do differently based on your mailing address, i.e., US mailing address you automatically get signed up for Medicare deductions & can only opt out at specific times....using a Mexican address you receive a notice allowing you to opt in or out.

It takes time; sometimes years; for all the potential "ties that bind" to surface, so just know that it's not necessarily as easy as you might think to sever your ties to the "Old Country"!

Hang in there & others may wander by & toss in more information based on personal experiences....you just might be able to open a Mexican bank account with all the dos centavos you receive.

Indeed.... I am not under any illusions that everything will be perfectly smooth sailing. A few decades of making my living mitigating the random event has taken away any illusions of that!

That being said... we will work it out. Gonna talk to my accountant soon.
I am pretty sure she is set up for electronic signature stuff and filing has been electronic forever....
I really don't have any emotional need to have any kind of correspondence addy here.... I will have to talk to PERS about my situation but since everything will be direct deposit and all our banking is online that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
As far as taxes.... mine will be pretty doggone simple once I am retired since I won't have all the deductions my profession allows.
No W-2s.... except for my PERS statement.
SO...... vehicles..... we'll have to play that one by ear but in about 7 months I may do the whole South Dakota thing....
I will have to check into the importation thing and there is beauceau info on that.
The best part is: I will have 80-100 hours a week more than I do now to figure it all out!

Not to mention that much more time with Mrs. SP, the Lil Patchettes & Seamus!

The main thing is to avoid residence or domicile ties to your former US state. Using somebody else's mailing address or phone number doesn't necessarily put you in those categories, but some states are stricter than others, so you need to research California's regs specifically and be careful how things are worded when providing information. An address field labeled "mailing address", "billing address" or simply "address" is different from one labeled "residence", especially if it's an official document.

After 30+ years outside the US, I have few ties there, and definitely no residence or vehicle registration. IRS, Social Security, and retirement fund companies all use my Mexico address, although I have retirement funds deposited in my US bank to avoid mandatory 30% withholding. For convenience, I still use my family's address as a mailing address for bank and credit card accounts. I manage them online, but they still need to be tied to a US address, though the businesses know I really live in Mexico. I've also kept a driver's license in that state (though I haven't lived there since the mid-'70s), but the DMV is now asking pointed questions about residence. The DL doesn't have tax implications and is handy during visits, but I'm not going to risk lying in order to keep it. If I lose it, I think I can drive on my Mexican DL.

That's all I can think of, except that if I really wanted to simplify my life, I'd ditch the US cars and buy used ones down here.

I have seen some nice vehicles for sale in Puerto Vallarta and environs that seem like very decent deals.....
Gonna have to figure it all out.
I am certain I can set up a mailing address without much issue. Seems like there are plenty of mail forwarding services that I can access through wherever I establish a mailing address.

Find a relative or friend in one of the following states with no income tax, then change your "residence" to that state.........

•Alaska
•Florida
•Nevada
•South Dakota
•Texas
•Washington
•Wyoming

Yes, I have been thinking on that, too.
Trying to think who I could bribe. Not sure I have any connections in those states.
I may have to use a mail forwarding service..... CalPers will dictate that.

A couple more thoughts:
For $10/month our SD mail forwarding service gives us a state-tax-free US domicile address. There's definitely not an emotional attachment to a US address, it just seems to make things alot easier for us. As mentioned, it's so much easier for US banking, credit card accounts, retirement accounts, etc to give them a US address.

We have no landline phone service, no reliable cell phone service, and no street address where we are. $120/yr for the US address and $50-60/yr for a Skype US phone number with voicemail makes living out here do-able. Every once in a while the bank will call us before they will approve an online transaction and we've really needed the US phone number on occasion. We can receive the Skype message at least but can't usually return the call on skype with crappy satellite internet so we still need to have a satellite phone to return important calls and for emergencies. It's some of the extra expenses we encounter to live where we have chosen. Where you are going is probably more civilized Soulpatch and you can probably link a Mexican phone number to your US bank and CC accounts. Is that what you do Kate and LLinLP?

Mailing address: Just when when you think you have everything online, you'll discover that some things will still come in the mail. If you don't have a friend or relative in a tax-free state as Teniente mentioned, it really helps to have your own address. Most of the time we don't need the address for mail.

Since we don't have an real street address here in the boonies (unlike Kate who lives in the big city), and to be consistent and avoid any hassle from CA franchise tax board regarding PERS pension payments we use the South Dakota address for IRS filings rather than attempt to use a Mexico address.

Ever since we tried to catch up our IRS filings for our fideicomisos (as part of last year's Voluntary offshore reporting program) the IRS has been sending letters to our SD address requesting more info for the very complex forms, and they send an update once per month to say they are back logged and haven't decided if they will hit us with a penalty yet. We only have our mail forwarded from SD a few times per year when we're going to CA or when someone is coming down here and the IRS is filling up the mailbox. Of course they want a response (by Mail!) to any questions they have within 30 days- ha ha, since I don't get the mail until months later! Once we get it ironed out, we'll go back to having only 1 or 2 things in our mail box. But this IRS thing is an example of something I hadn't anticipated needing a US mailing address for.

Do you plan to keep US medical insurance? Even if they claim to have everything online like your auto-deducted premiums and claims status, they will still want to mail you new cards (altho you can print them online usually) and important letters like when they jack up your rates! If you visit a doctor or have routine annual work ups on a visit back to the US, the doctors and labs etc will still mail you their bills. Medical insurance is a whole different snafu with regards to having a US "address", but that info is reserved for email or a PM.

We had no problem switching to the SD address with PERS .

We're going to be "still learning" for as long as we live here.

Many salient points.
I think us being renters for a few years rather than owners is going to simplify our tax situation significantly with the IRS.
As far as insurance.... we have been having a lot of dialog about that and we are not sure where to go with this one.
There are people in PV that make a decent living about squaring expats away on this...... I have started a bit of a dialog.
Honestly? It would only be for the direst of emergencies and the DAN evac insurance looks good in that regard.
Some of the East Capers use an insurance guy based out of La Mesa here who has good insurance rates with a high deductible... we might use that for our bailout plan, I don't know yet.
We have discussed at length the merits of paying as we go. I have to do more research on the policies available in PV.....
These are big issues.... but, we have decided that we are not going to let the biggest details, if we don't have them completely figured out by then, deter us from moving on. Sometimes you just have to step in.... right now to maintain my employer insurance is over $1100/month..... I think paying a high deductible and cash would be more prudent.
More stuff to learn!
All I know for sure is this: My wife wants me to retire and have us live fulltime somewhere green and warm.

We have NV PERS insurance. If we have an emergency or anything major when in Baja, we go to San Diego (Sharp Medical Center) call the insurance company and tell them we are on vacation or traveling.......works so far.

Soulpatch, sounds like a road trip to SD is in order....Car registrations, DL's, address, mail service........be worth a trip every 5 years........unless you can do all of that in Texas.

Also read somewhere of a mail service that opens your mail, scans the documents/bills/letters and e-mails them to you.

Originally Posted by oladulce

Where you are going is probably more civilized Soulpatch and you can probably link a Mexican phone number to your US bank and CC accounts. Is that what you do Kate and LLinLP?

No, they have the phone number in the US that goes with my mailing address. It's only my bank and American Express, and although I've phoned and emailed them, I can't recall that they've ever phoned me for anything. If they did, my brother would get the number and have me call back from here.

In 2009 I went through the same thing as you with the IRS 3520 filings (follow-ups that they wanted in 30 days, of which only a few days remained when I got them). They have my address and phone here in La Paz. I've found over the years that the key to dealing with the IRS is consistency. Since the major point in my explanations for having a "trust" is that its only purpose is to let me live in my primary home, I want them to be well aware that I really do live in Mexico.

Keep in mind that I deal only with the Feds and don't have any state stuff, unlike you folks or Soulpatch.

I'll address JUST the tax filing part of this. I am a CPA with over 25 years experience and live in Mexico.

If you are a US citizen living abroad, you only need to file a federal tax return. The link to the IRS website that discusses this and where to mail the form is: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=97324,00.html

I have clients all over the world and if they don't have an easy US address to use that doesn't link them into a state tax system, we just follow that procedure.

A bit of a warning: If you own property or have a DL in a tax aggressive state like California, they'll try to pull you into that state for state tax purposes.

Thank you.
As far as that CDL... since I will have a foreign address there must be an exemption.
Guess I will have to figure out how to "renounce" my CDL.
I am going to talk to my tax person in a few weeks.
I am also going to clarify about how long I can be in CA as a resident (less than 6 months) before I have to pay the state income tax.
With some work issues it may take me as long as May of 2013 to leave CA.

Also, I have heard that if you earned a pension working in California, that no matter where you live, you will have to pay CA State income tax on your pension or 401(k)/403(b) distributions. I don't know for sure if that is a fact.