Moving from Michigan to Texas: Residency, Taxes, and What to Prove

In Michigan

Michigan applies its ordinary domicile and 183-day deeming rule to a travel nurse the same as anyone else: a nurse who lives in Michigan at least 183 days in a tax year is statutorily deemed a Michigan domiciliary regardless of a claimed out-of-state tax home. The more frequent exposure runs the other way, where a nurse claims a Florida or Texas tax home while actually renting in Michigan for most of an assignment; Michigan and, where applicable, a Michigan city both tax nonresident wages for days actually worked in the jurisdiction regardless of the claimed tax home.

In Texas

Because Texas has no income tax, it is one of the most common states travel nurses claim as a tax home, since no Texas return is ever required regardless of how assignment income is sourced. The exposure isn't with Texas, it's federal and multi-state: the IRS still requires a genuine tax home, a Texas residence the nurse pays to maintain and returns to, to justify tax-free stipends under the duplicate-expense logic in IRS Publication 463, and any income-tax state where the nurse actually works still requires a nonresident return on wages earned there regardless of claimed Texas residency.

In Michigan

Michigan and the City of Detroit both tax nonresident professional athletes on a duty-day basis. Detroit's jock tax, formally codified in 2017, applies its duty-day apportionment broadly, reaching injured players who travel with the team as well as coaches, trainers, and other team personnel required to travel and perform services, not just players who take the field. This applies to visiting teams playing the Lions, Pistons, Tigers, and Red Wings.

In Texas

Texas is home to the Cowboys, Texans, Mavericks, Rockets, Spurs, Rangers, and Astros, and because Texas has no income tax, athletes domiciled here owe no state tax on their home-team salary, only on the 'duty days' spent playing in states that run a jock tax on visiting players. That asymmetry makes Texas domicile a common tax-planning choice among professional athletes generally, not only those on Texas rosters.

In Michigan

The Michigan snowbird risk runs directly through the Principal Residence Exemption and the 183-day deeming rule together. Campbell v. Department of Treasury shows that simply acquiring a second home in a state like Arizona, without more, was enough for Treasury to deny the PRE on the Michigan home for the following tax year, and Treasury's three-year lookback on PRE claims means a snowbird's arrangement gets checked retroactively, not just going forward. Separately, spending at least 183 days in Michigan in a year, even a retiree splitting time between an Up North cottage and Florida, statutorily deems that person a Michigan domiciliary for the year.

In Texas

Because there is no income-tax day count to trip, long-term visitors and part-year residents face none of the 183-day exposure that drives snowbird planning in New York or California. Texas is instead a destination snowbirds and RVers domicile through, using a homestead or a mail-forwarding domicile service, precisely because spending months elsewhere creates no Texas tax consequence to manage.

In Michigan

Michigan has no convenience-of-the-employer rule at the state level. A nonresident who works remotely from another state for a Michigan-based employer is generally not taxed by Michigan on those wages, since the state sources employee compensation to where work is physically performed rather than to the employer's location; the same principle generally applies to Michigan's local city income taxes.

In Texas

No convenience-of-the-employer rule and no income tax mean a genuine Texas remote worker owes Texas nothing on wages, regardless of where the employer is headquartered. The real risk sits with the employer's state: a remote worker may still owe tax elsewhere for days physically worked from an out-of-state office or HQ, a pattern several high-tax states actively audit for among employees who claim to have relocated to Texas.

In Michigan

Michigan follows the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. A servicemember whose domicile was Michigan before entering service remains a Michigan domiciliary regardless of duty station unless they affirmatively establish a new domicile, while a servicemember stationed in Michigan on orders, and a qualifying spouse, does not become a Michigan resident solely because of the posting.

In Texas

Texas has no income tax, so service members who claim Texas as home of record owe no state tax on military pay regardless of where they're stationed, making it one of the most popular home-of-record choices in the military. Nonmilitary spouses covered under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act can elect Texas as their tax domicile alongside the servicemember, which likewise means no state tax on the spouse's income.

In Michigan

Federal law (49 U.S.C. §40116) limits states to taxing airline employee compensation only in the employee's state of residence and any state where more than 50% of pay is earned, protecting flight crew based at Detroit Metro who are domiciled outside Michigan from full-income Michigan taxation based solely on their duty station.

In Texas

DFW and IAH are major hub crew bases for American Airlines and United, and Dallas Love Field is Southwest's headquarters, making Texas domicile attractive for flight crew under the federal Mobile Workforce carve-out for air carrier employees (49 U.S.C. Sec. 40116), which limits state income tax on a crew member's pay to their state of residence plus any state where they earn more than 50% of their compensation. A Texas-domiciled crew member who never crosses that 50% threshold elsewhere owes no state tax on flight pay at all.