Moving from Rhode Island to American Samoa: Residency, Taxes, and What to Prove

Possibly, starting with the period beginning July 1, 2026. Rhode Island's new Non-Owner Occupied Property Tax applies to residential properties assessed above $1,000,000 that are neither your primary residence nor occupied by you more than 183 days a year. If you rent the property out for more than 183 days a year instead, it's exempt as a rental rather than as a residence. The tax is roughly $2.50 for every $500 of assessed value above the $1 million threshold, and you need to document your occupancy or rental pattern to support whichever exemption path applies.

No. Guam, the USVI, and the CNMI use a 'mirror code' that applies the U.S. Internal Revenue Code word for word with the territory's name substituted in. American Samoa has its own separate and independent tax system: A.S.C.A. section 11.0403 incorporates much of the Internal Revenue Code by reference, so the law is modeled on federal law, but rates and specific rules are set independently by the American Samoa Government, not automatically updated when Congress changes the federal code.

Yes. As part of the fiscal year 2027 state budget enacted in mid-2026, Rhode Island added a phased-in surtax on income above $1,000,000 that will eventually raise the effective top rate from 5.99% up to 8.99%. It makes Rhode Island's top marginal rate the second-highest in New England, behind only Massachusetts's combined 9% rate, and it changes the math for anyone deciding whether to stay a Rhode Island resident once a large capital event, like a business sale, pushes them over that threshold.

Generally, no. Over 90% of American Samoa's land is communally owned by extended families under the matai (chief) system, and non-natives cannot acquire that land outright; transferring communal land to individual ownership requires Land Commission recommendation and Governor approval, or 30 years of adverse possession. Most non-native residents live under a long-term lease rather than owning a home, which changes what proof-of-residence documentation looks like compared to anywhere else in this guide.

Not by itself. Rhode Island's statutory residency test requires both a permanent place of abode and more than 183 aggregate days of actual presence in the state during the taxable year. An apartment visited only occasionally, well under that day count, does not trigger statutory residency even if it remains available to you year-round.

If you're a bona fide American Samoa resident under the federal presence, tax home, and closer connection tests, your American Samoa-source income is generally exempt from U.S. federal tax. You do need to report worldwide income on your American Samoa return, and if you have non-American Samoa-source income above the filing threshold, you'll still need to file a U.S. return excluding the American Samoa income using Form 4563.

Not exactly, and it's less forgiving in one specific way: Rhode Island exempts Social Security only below certain federal AGI thresholds, and its separate pension exclusion, up to roughly $15,000 for taxpayers 65 and older, disappears entirely once income crosses that same threshold, rather than phasing out gradually the way some neighboring states structure their exemptions. Retirees near that income line should model the cliff carefully rather than assume a smooth reduction.

No, and this is a common and costly misunderstanding. Publication 570 specifically requires that wages and cost-of-living allowances paid by the U.S. Government for services performed in American Samoa be included in gross income on both your U.S. and American Samoa income tax returns, regardless of whether you are a bona fide American Samoa resident. A foreign tax credit is available for the American Samoa tax paid on the same income to avoid double taxation, but the U.S. filing obligation itself does not go away.

It's considerably less forgiving on a dollar basis. Rhode Island's exemption, indexed annually for inflation, exempted the first $1,774,583 of a net taxable estate for decedents dying in 2024, the second-lowest exemption threshold in the country behind only Oregon's flat $1,000,000. Massachusetts's exemption is higher at $2,000,000, and Connecticut's matches the multi-million-dollar federal exemption, so a Rhode Island estate can owe state estate tax at a much lower net worth than an otherwise-similar estate in a neighboring state.

People born in American Samoa are U.S. nationals, not automatically U.S. citizens, unless a parent was a U.S. citizen or they separately naturalize. This status allows a U.S. passport and mainland residency rights, but American Samoa residents, whether national or citizen, do not vote in U.S. presidential elections, and the territory's Congressional delegate is non-voting. Local territorial elections are separately administered by the American Samoa Election Office.

There's no public record of Rhode Island running an audit program on the scale of New York's or Connecticut's, and no widely reported published case law exists comparable to those states' court decisions. That said, the state just created two new, direct financial incentives, the millionaire's surtax and the Non-Owner Occupied Property Tax, both effective in 2026, that give the Division of Taxation fresh reasons to scrutinize high earners and second-home owners more closely than it has historically needed to.

183 days in the tax year is the cleanest path under the federal presence test, but there are four alternatives, including 549 days across the current and two prior years with at least 60 days each year. Meeting a presence prong alone is not enough; you also need to pass the tax home test and the closer connection test, which for American Samoa often weighs matai title, extended-family (aiga) ties, and lease-based home arrangements rather than conventional homeownership.