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

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 Virginia

Virginia applies the same actual-resident and domicile tests to travel nurses as to anyone else: a nurse not domiciled in Virginia who maintains a Virginia abode for more than 183 aggregate days during assignments becomes an actual resident taxed on worldwide income. The nationally common problem, a nurse claiming a no-tax-state tax home while actually living in a Virginia rental for most of the year, is analyzed under this same statutory framework rather than a nurse-specific carve-out.

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 Virginia

Virginia has historically had no NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL franchise physically based in the Commonwealth, though the Washington Capitals and Wizards' NBA/NHL practice facility and a planned new arena project have brought professional sports infrastructure into Northern Virginia. Nonresident athletes and entertainers earning income for events performed in Virginia are subject to the state's standard nonresident sourcing rules on Form 763, but there is no widely published Virginia-specific duty-days regulation comparable to New York's.

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 Virginia

The Virginia snowbird risk runs through the aggregate 183-day actual-resident test: a retiree who keeps a Virginia home and spends more than 183 aggregate days there in a year, even while also wintering in Florida, becomes an actual Virginia resident taxed on worldwide income regardless of where they consider themselves domiciled. Because Virginia measures aggregate days maintaining the abode rather than a stricter any-part-of-day rule, careful counting of total days present, not just overnight stays, matters for anyone trying to stay under the threshold.

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 Virginia

Virginia has no published convenience-of-the-employer rule. A nonresident who works remotely for a Virginia-based employer while physically located and domiciled outside Virginia is generally not taxed by Virginia on that income, since Virginia sources wages based on where work is actually performed rather than the employer's location.

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 Virginia

Virginia's domiciliary-resident category expressly includes servicemembers who entered the military from Virginia and retained Virginia as their home of record; absence from Virginia on military orders does not by itself cancel Virginia domicile. Under the federal SCRA and Military Spouses Residency Relief Act as amended, a nonresident servicemember stationed in Virginia on orders is not taxed on military pay solely because of the duty station, and a military spouse can generally elect the servicemember's state of legal residence.

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.

In Virginia

Federal law (49 U.S.C. §40116) limits states to taxing an air carrier employee's compensation only in the state of residence and any state where more than 50% of pay is earned, protecting flight crew connected to Virginia operations, including those based near Washington Dulles, from having their full income pulled into Virginia taxation solely because of duty station if they are domiciled elsewhere.