Florida to New York: Does a Summer Back Home Undo Your Florida Residency

The move to Florida is done. The license, the voter card, the homestead filing and the Declaration of Domicile all say Florida. Then June arrives, the grandchildren are out of school, the heat in Palm Beach is serious, and the old pull north starts. The question is whether three or four months back in New York quietly hands New York a claim to tax you as a resident again.

The answer depends on which of New York’s two residency tests you are asking about, and they give very different answers to the same summer. Under the domicile test, a regular summer in New York is usually fine, and New York’s own audit guidelines say so. Under the statutory residency test, the same summer can be enough on its own, with no question of intent at all, if you keep a New York home and the days add up. Most Floridians who get into trouble here are thinking about the first test and fail the second.

The corridor overview, with both states’ rules side by side, is on the moving from Florida to New York page.

Under 20 NYCRR 105.20(a), a New York resident is either someone domiciled in New York, or someone who is not domiciled in New York but "maintains a permanent place of abode for substantially all of the taxable year" and spends "more than 183 days of the taxable year" in the state. The same definitions apply to New York City under Administrative Code section 11-1705(b)(1)(B), as the Department’s advisory opinions note, so a summer in a Manhattan apartment raises the city income tax question along with the state one.

Domicile is the place you intend as your permanent home. The regulation says that once established, a domicile continues until you move to a new location with the bona fide intention of making it your permanent home, and that "the burden is upon any person asserting a change of domicile" to show that intent. For a person with more than one home, the regulation adds that domicile is the one "such person regards and uses as permanent."

Statutory residency ignores intent entirely. It is a mechanical test with two prongs: a permanent place of abode in New York maintained for substantially all of the year, and more than 183 days present in New York. A person who is genuinely domiciled in Florida, by every measure, is still taxed by New York as a full-year resident on worldwide income if both prongs are met. The Department’s Nonresident Audit Guidelines also apply the test in the year a domicile changes: a taxpayer who meets both prongs is taxed for the entire year even if the domicile moved partway through it.

The Nonresident Audit Guidelines, which tell New York auditors how to run a residency audit, address the summer pattern directly. In the discussion of the time factor, they state that if an individual formerly lived and worked in New York all year "but has retired and moved south, seasonal visits to New York, such as an annual summer visit, should not be viewed negatively," because the visit "is entirely consistent with the taxpayer’s new pattern of living." The same point is repeated in the family connections discussion and again in the evaluation of lifestyle changes.

The guidelines illustrate it with Matter of Henry and Betty Karlin, DTA No. 807996, where the administrative law judge found that the couple had significant, long-term ties to Florida and had shifted their permanent home there in retirement. In the judge’s words, "petitioners were ‘summering’ in New York, but lived in Florida," and they were treated as Florida domiciliaries.

That protection has limits, and the guidelines spell them out. Time is one of five primary factors, alongside home, active business involvement, items near and dear, and family connections, and the auditor compares the New York side of each factor with the Florida side. The guidelines cite Matter of Buzzard v. Tax Appeals Tribunal, a couple who claimed a change of domicile to Florida, where the Appellate Division concluded that "most significantly, in the years in question petitioners spent more time in New York than in Florida." They also cite Matter of Zapka, where a couple with strong ties to both states could not show a change, because the fact that "persuasive arguments can be made" for both Florida and New York meant they had not clearly and convincingly shown an intent to leave.

The standard is high. The guidelines state that the evidence of a change of domicile must be "clear and convincing," and that a long-time New Yorker claiming to have left "must be able to support his intentions with unequivocal acts." They also warn that a small shift is not a move: going from six months a year in Florida to seven, by itself, "would not constitute strong evidence of a change in lifestyle." A summer in New York works as a visit when the rest of the year, and the rest of your life, is plainly in Florida.

The summer pattern that is safe under the domicile test can still fail the statutory test, and the arithmetic is closer than most people expect. May 1 through September 30 is 153 days. Add a week at Thanksgiving, ten days over the holidays, a spring wedding and a handful of medical appointments, and a person who thinks of themselves as a five-month New Yorker is at or past 184 days.

The 183-day prong only matters if the abode prong is also met, which is why keeping a New York home is the deciding fact for most summer visitors. A Floridian who stays with a sibling, rents a different beach house each July or books a hotel has a much simpler day-count problem than one who still owns the apartment on the Upper West Side or the house in Westchester.

If you keep a New York home, the day count becomes the whole case, and the burden of proving it sits with you. Our day count checker shows how close a given travel pattern runs to the line.

The regulation defines a permanent place of abode as "a dwelling place of a permanent nature maintained by the taxpayer, whether or not owned by such taxpayer," and excludes "a mere camp or cottage, which is suitable and used only for vacations." The abode must be maintained for substantially all of the year. Before 2022, Audit Division policy read that as more than 11 months; beginning with tax year 2022, the guidelines define it as generally more than 10 months, applied in the years a taxpayer acquires or disposes of a residence.

Three rules in the guidelines matter for a Floridian with a New York home. First, renting the place out for part of the year does not end it. The guidelines’ own example is a taxpayer who rents out a Saratoga Springs home for a few months each summer and is still treated as maintaining a permanent place of abode for substantially all of the year, because the home remains available on a regular, continuing basis. Second, it does not have to be the same home: an apartment in Queens through June and another in Nassau County from July counts as one abode for the full year. Third, the 10-month figure is a general rule, not an absolute one. In Matter of Brodman and Grimm, DTA No. 818594, an apartment maintained for 10 and a half months was held substantial under the old 11-month policy, because an absolute rule would let taxpayers sidestep the test by handing the keys to someone else for a month.

The courts have narrowed the test from the other side. In Matter of Gaied v. New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal (2014), the Court of Appeals held that a taxpayer "must, himself, have a residential interest in the property" for it to be his permanent place of abode. Gaied, a New Jersey resident, had bought a Staten Island building for his elderly parents and occasionally stayed over; owning it and having access was not enough. A New York home you actually live in every summer, though, is far closer to the residential interest Gaied describes.

The camp or cottage exception is narrow, and one advisory opinion shows how narrow. In TSB-A-11(5)I (2011), a New Jersey resident who held a summer home in a Queens beach cooperative was found to fall within the exception, but on specific facts: the cooperative’s rules limited occupancy to May 1 through September 30, he had the heating system permanently removed, and the cooperative formally notified him that the home could no longer be used year-round. A winterized house or apartment that you could use in January, even if you never do, is not a cottage.

Under section 105.20(c), "presence within New York State for any part of a calendar day constitutes a day spent within New York State." The guidelines note that the rule was upheld in Leach v. Chu, and they give an example of how far it reaches: in Matter of Klingenstein, DTA No. 815156, Connecticut residents who crossed into New York 21 and 22 days a year for shopping and dining were held to have spent those days in New York, because, as the judge put it, "there is, unfortunately, no shopping or dining exception." They became statutory residents.

There are two exceptions. Presence solely to board a plane, ship, train or bus to a destination outside the state, or solely to travel through the state, is disregarded. A Floridian who lands at LaGuardia and drives straight to Connecticut has not spent a New York day; one who lands, has dinner in Manhattan and drives to Connecticut has. Under Audit policy following Stranahan v. State Tax Commission, days confined to a New York medical institution do not count either, but the guidelines state that the exclusion does not extend to outpatient care, so the summer cardiology checkup at the old practice is a New York day.

The regulation puts the records requirement on you. A person who maintains a New York abode and claims to be a nonresident "must keep and have available for examination" adequate records showing they did not spend more than 183 days in the state, and the guidelines say the standard of proof is clear and convincing. They accept a mix of documents, contemporaneous calendars backed by credible testimony, and in some cases testimony alone, and they tell auditors to generally accept weekend days the taxpayer says were spent at home absent a clear pattern to the contrary. For a summer visitor, that latitude does little good: the days in question are a continuous stretch in New York, not scattered weekends.

Passing both tests makes you a nonresident, not invisible. A nonresident still owes New York tax on New York-source income, which the IT-203 instructions define to include income from services performed in New York, from real or tangible property located in New York, and from a business carried on in New York. Wages earned partly inside and partly outside the state are allocated on Schedule A of Form IT-203-B.

Two consequences follow for a summer in New York. If you work while you are there, those days are New York workdays and the wages for them are New York income. And if you keep working for a New York employer from Florida the rest of the year, our New York residency guide explains that the convenience of the employer rule can treat those Florida home-office days as New York days too, unless the arrangement is a bona fide necessity of the employer; the Tax Appeals Tribunal reaffirmed the rule in Matter of Zelinsky in 2025. Separately, if you rent out the New York home for the months you are in Florida, that rent is income from New York real property and is New York-source.

Our New York guide also notes that the state’s general assessment period is three years from filing, extended to six years for a large omission of income, with no limit for a year in which no return was filed. A Floridian who files nothing because they believe they owe New York nothing has left that year open.

Florida has no income tax, so Florida will never audit your residency for income tax purposes. The audit you are preparing for is New York’s, and Florida’s documents are evidence in it. As our Florida residency guide sets out, Florida’s Declaration of Domicile under Fla. Stat. section 222.17 is a sworn statement recorded with the county clerk, and the homestead exemption requires that you own and occupy the home as your permanent residence as of January 1. Both are routinely cited in New York audits as support for a genuine change, though neither decides the case alone.

The guidelines’ comparison approach means the Florida side has to do more than exist. The home factor compares how each residence is used, and the guidelines are explicit that retaining a New York residence "is not, by itself, sufficient evidence to negate a change of domicile," but the use pattern of the Florida home must outweigh the New York one. Items near and dear follow the same logic. In Matter of Blatt, summarized in our New York guide, a taxpayer kept his Manhattan apartment and still won his domicile case, with the administrative law judge finding that his dog "was his near and dear item which reflected his ultimate change in domicile" to Dallas. The family photographs, the heirlooms, the art and the pets should live in Florida and travel north for the summer, not the other way around.

Florida has its own trap, and it runs toward the same audit. Our Florida guide notes that a homestead exemption kept on a Florida property after residency is established elsewhere can draw back taxes, a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent annual interest under Fla. Stat. section 196.161. A summer that turns into a real move back to New York needs the Florida homestead removed, which is the move covered in detail on the moving from Florida to New York page.

Decide before Memorial Day which test you are relying on. If you no longer keep a New York home, statutory residency is off the table and the question is domicile, where an established Florida life and a summer visit fit the pattern New York’s own guidelines describe. If you do keep a New York home, assume the abode prong is met and manage the day count with a margin, because the any-part-of-a-day rule fills the calendar faster than memory does.

Keep the summer a summer. Arrive and leave on dates you can document, and keep the rest of the year anchored in Florida: the doctors, the bank, the clubs, the place of worship, the car and the people you see every week. Avoid the drift the guidelines warn about, where each year adds a few more weeks north until the pattern no longer reads as a visit.

If you left New York recently, the outbound rules that apply to your exit year, including the 184-day statutory trap and the five-factor domicile review, are on the moving from New York to Florida page.

For every summer, keep a day-by-day calendar of New York days made at the time, not reconstructed later, with the flights, toll records and card statements that confirm the arrival and departure dates. Keep the records for days that do not count: boarding passes for pure connections, and admission and discharge records for any inpatient stay.

For any New York home, keep the lease or ownership records, any rental agreements for the months it was let, and the dates it was and was not available to you. For the Florida side, keep the Declaration of Domicile, the homestead approval, the Florida license, vehicle and voter registrations, and a year of Florida activity that shows where your life is between Labor Day and Memorial Day.

The full set of New York rules, including the audit triggers and the case law on abodes, is in our New York residency intelligence guide, and the Florida filings are in our Florida residency intelligence guide.

ResidencyIQ organizes records and highlights potential exposure factors. It does not provide legal or tax advice, and a Floridian who keeps a New York home or works in New York during the summer should have the day count and the abode question reviewed by a tax professional who handles New York residency cases.

The definition of a resident individual, the any-part-of-a-day rule and its boarding and travel-through exceptions, the records requirement for a nonresident with a New York abode, the continuation of domicile and the burden on the person asserting a change, the two-homes rule, and the permanent place of abode definition with its camp or cottage exclusion, are from 20 NYCRR 105.20: https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/new-york/20-NYCRR-105.20.

The time factor discussion including the annual summer visit passage, Matter of Karlin, Matter of Buzzard, and the six-to-seven-months example; the clear and convincing standard and Matter of Zapka; the home factor comparison and the statement that retaining a New York residence is not by itself sufficient to negate a change; the 10-month rule from tax year 2022, the Saratoga Springs rental and Queens and Nassau County examples, and Matter of Brodman and Grimm; the application of the statutory test in a year of domicile change; and the day-counting discussion including Leach v. Chu, Matter of Klingenstein, the travel exception, the Stranahan medical-confinement policy and its outpatient limit, and the weekend-day guidance, are from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Nonresident Audit Guidelines (December 2021): https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/2021/misc/nonresident-audit-guidelines-2021.pdf.

The Queens summer cooperative facts and holding, and the application of the state definitions to New York City under Administrative Code section 11-1705(b)(1)(B), are from Advisory Opinion TSB-A-11(5)I (August 16, 2011): https://tax.ny.gov/pdf/advisory_opinions/income/a11_5i.pdf.

The Gaied facts and the "residential interest" holding are summarized by EisnerAmper at https://www.eisneramper.com/insights/tax/decision-ny-statutory-residence-0214/ and in our New York residency guide.

The definition of New York-source income for nonresidents and the Schedule A wage allocation on Form IT-203-B are from the New York State Instructions for Form IT-203 (2024): https://www.tax.ny.gov/forms/html-instructions/2024/it/it203i-2024.htm.

The convenience of the employer rule and Matter of Zelinsky (2025), the three-year, six-year and unlimited assessment periods, and Matter of Blatt, DTA No. 826504 (https://www.dta.ny.gov/pdf/determinations/826504.det.pdf), are from our New York residency guide, which cites the underlying sources including https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/blog/2025/5/22/navigating-new-yorks-convenience-rule-insights-from-matter-of-zelinsky-2025.

The Declaration of Domicile under Fla. Stat. section 222.17, the January 1 homestead occupancy requirement, and the section 196.161 back taxes, 50 percent penalty and 15 percent interest, are from our Florida residency guide, which cites the underlying sources including https://floridarevenue.com/property/documents/pt113.pdf and https://www.miamidadeclerk.gov/clerk/declaration-domicile.page.