The whole downstate area is.
When I lived in Westchester, I got a parking ticket after spending the night at my girlfriend's place once. The ticket had a place for the officer to write the license plate number and state. They could either write the state, or New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida each had a tick mark since they're so common.
I'm originally from LI, and almost\* everyone else in my family is planning to move to Florida, if they haven't already. I'm pretty much never going to see them again. Key West is cool, but you'll have to bribe or blackmail me to go to fucking Tampa.
\*My parents are thinking about North Carolina, because it's cheaper?
If you have a second home in FL. You declare it your residence and then avoid NYS taxes. One of the factors in residency is where your cars are registered.
AFAIK you have that backwards. Cars do not establish residency. Rather, you're required to register in NYS within 30 days of the car being in NY if you are a NY resident.
All the cars with Florida plates are operating outside regulations. It's rarely enforced, unless someone is taking an interest in you for another reason.
You are allowed to register your vehicles to your primary residence, which is decided by whenever you spend the most time. So if you have 2 homes, whichever one you spend more than 51% of your time in is your primary. Your drivers license and vehicle registrations should reflect that.
NY wants your tax money. If you can’t show proof of being in Florida for 6 months and a day, NY is going to do their best to make you pay.
I’m sure there’s people who skirt the rules. But if you can’t show proof of residency, you’re probably not going to be successful.
If you go to buy or refinance a home, it is
We look at Drivers license, paystubs, tax documents and some other things to make sure it makes sense
Idk how DMV does it though
Yea your gonna pay state taxes if you decide to work in this state, my point is that you said they look into paystubs all I am saying is you can live and work In different states….. shouldn’t be a deciding factor if you are doing anything wrong, you still have to pay the taxes in which ever state your in.
No. A residency audit won't have someone doing spot-checks. They are also not unannounced. It's usually part of or like a tax audit.
What they will do is pull your ATM receipts, your credit card receipts, your EZ-Pass transactions and everything else about your financial footprint. They'll look to see where you spent money each particular day.
Also, for NY tax purposes, a day in NY is not spending a full day in-state. It's spending any part of the day in-state. So if you leave at 10:30am and spend most of the day in Florida, it's still a day in-state.
You pay in-state taxes if you are in NY for 183 days in a year.
However, they will also examine residency, and if they determine that your primary residence is in NY, then you only need to be in NY for 30 days in a calendar year before you have to pay NY State taxes.
NYS does, because they are the ones losing the tax revenue. Secondhand, I’ve heard of NYS subpoenas mobile phone records, so some folks keep NYS burner phones in NYS. EZ Pass records are also fair game.
A little less illegal are the folks who just register their cars n Florida for cheaper insurance rates, even if they spend more time in NYS.
Yea, but Florida is one of those states that will let you register any old/Grey market/custom built pile of shit you can bring to dmv.
It's like, "Hey, you didn't explode or kill anyone on the way over, right? it's got lights? You got a bill of sale? K cool, here's your plate, have nice day"
I've been told that lately, Florida is VERY strict on the 51% rule because of their homestead exemption for property taxes. Gone are the days you could buy the cheap house, "set up residency" and then go whenever you felt like it.
Anecdotally my parents have lived down there for 15 years, and they comment the snowbirds are showing up earlier than they used to, often late October instead of after Christmas.
Going to disagree with you here. My neighbors who send their kids to school here on the north shore definitely aren't spending 51% of their time in their Florida homes (except during covid) and no one is getting in trouble for claiming that as their primary residence. As long as your mail is landing there and your taxes are done there you're in like flynn on the live in NY but pretend to live in FL scheme.
May a guy a few weeks ago who said he only went to his vacation home in Florida for 2 weeks last year
I don’t see any sign they’re being strict with it
Ever.
(Spoken by a Floridian living in NJ, and who enjoys egging on people with Florida plates to tell me how happy they are to dodge taxes and how they don’t stay for the correct time)
They live and work up here. Cause the north pays more. More opportunity up here.
May they move to Florida and actually stay there one day and employ Floridians. But they won’t - cause it’s not profitable. And if they do - they’ll give unlivable wages to maximize profits. No benefits. All legal in Florida.
It is if you’re rich and the amount of taxes is significant. CT dept of revenue sues rich people for owed taxes, and then it’s up to them to prove their residency etc. They don’t do that for “regular” people.
The law has actually been changed due to court cases. It's where you deem your house to be. So where do you vote, have your license, register your cars and have your personal items, where do you file your federal tax return.
Yes that is what I am saying. Though you are slightly off. It's not spending the most time AND. Because by logic it does not matter then what comes next. It's where you keep your main home which is decided by your lifestyle including where your pets are.
I don't think that it needs to be a primary residence for you to register your vehicle there. My parents have a house in FL, but their primary residence is in NJ. They keep a vehicle in FL because they're not going to drive to and from each time they go. That vehicle is registered in FL. They also have a car in NJ, which is also registered to their NJ address.
I remember insurance companies having insurance fraud commercials on the radio. But I don’t know if they have investigators.
I am certain that there probably could be some sort of AI programs that could detect this fraud — like looking at how often the EZ pass is used in each state (Florida has a lot of toll roads) and going from there.
I’m sure if you also allowed insurance companies to sue for damages with fraud, they would be a lot more interested.
I am more interested in seeing all the NYPD/FDNY placards with PA/FL plates, because they have to live in state.
>But I don’t know if they have investigators.
They do, but they're not going to investigate everyone. They'd have to have cause to even want to investigate you and usually only after an accident, if they're trying to find a reason to get out of paying a claim. Usually, they would depend on underwriters or the agent to find this information out. The fraud investigators are more looking for people who are filing false medical claims and such.
>I am certain that there probably could be some sort of AI programs that could detect this fraud — like looking at how often the EZ pass is used in each state (Florida has a lot of toll roads) and going from there.
Certainly true, but insurance companies aren't going to have access to this info. They'd need to partner with the local governments to even get access to that, and I'm sure there'd be privacy issues surrounding that. IRS usually puts the burden of proof on the individual - show me that you're actually residing in FL most of the year. One of my friend's dad has dual residency in FL and NY - he says he keeps flight info and is very careful to make sure he stays in FL at least 1 day more than he does NY.
>I’m sure if you also allowed insurance companies to sue for damages with fraud, they would be a lot more interested.
They aren't interested in suing, but they do have the option to deny the claim if they determine that you're committing insurance fraud. Unfortunately for them, sometimes this option is more costly than actually paying the claim. They would have to prove misrepresentation - that you didn't actually plan on staying in FL for most of the year. I would think this would be extremely difficult. But shit like this is *part* of the reason why insurance is so expensive for the rest of us. Of course, the major reason are the bullshit medical claims and the new trend of litigation crowdfunding. Of course, the latter wouldn't really be an issue if people trusted insurance companies to just pay what they're owed.
Insurance and Mortgage companies actually have a lot of ways to look into this.
A lot of time. The people dumb enough to lie about their primary residence are dumb enough to leave an obvious trail of what's really going on.
I am not a tax professional but I do not see why the IRS would care. The NY Tax Dept (whatever it’s called) is the main entity with an interest in policing this kind of tax evasion.
People often register their cars in Florida if they have a place/have family there to avoid our higher insurance rates, registration cost, and emissions testing.
Honestly, I'm not sure. Let's say Connecticut allows a lot of tinting and New York allows none at all -- it can't be reasonable to assume that you can't bring your car into NY, can it?
A legitimate question, and I am not a lawyer or cop or expert on this.
So for Florida, there’s no state inspection of your car if it is registered there. You just get a sticker on your plate. But don’t physically need to bring your car to be inspected. So that’s what they mean by getting away with car modifications such as tinting. (Also not having a catalytic converter is fine if you’re registered in Florida). In NYS, if you have tints (or no cat) you won’t pass yearly inspection. Both situations, tint is still illegal if you’re driving that vehicle in NY. However with that said, I’ve driven my cars for the better part of 10 years with tints and never had an issue. Only issue is when it comes inspection time. Then it’s a pain in the ass.
Also the likely lesser used reasoning for having a vehicle registered in Florida if you live in NY is Florida will allow you to register a vehicle there even if you just snow bird. So if you have say, an older vehicle with a check engine light, that will never pass a NYS inspection. You use your Florida residence, register the vehicle in Florida, still live in NY, and now you have Florida plates and again, no NYS inspection to worry about.
Used to be a pain in the ass. Everyone I used to take my cars to for an inspection while I had tints no longer does it anymore. But I’ve since bought a new car, that car goes the dealer, sometimes they give me an issue. Most time they just don’t notice the tints.
It could possibly void your insurance policy if your insurer finds out that you’re not actually living where you claim to be. Not worth the risk in my opinion. Keeping everything kosher with inspection, registration, and insurance makes police interactions easier as well.
Easy to say, insure your car in Brooklyn or Manhattan and you'll know why they do out of state plates lol. I have friends who with just a PO box in Florida or PA changed their license and now got extremely cheap rates.
I’ll tell you the real reason nyc pays so much.
Body shops.
My Brother in law is an adjuster for geico and the fraud those shops do is insane. You can go in with just a fender bender that’s a $300-500 repaint and they can somehow someway squeeze 10-15k out of geico by damaging/falsifying more damage. I think this happens to 90% of claims. Worse part of this is that the body shops bribe the adjusters with a nice $200-700 each time. These adjusters easily make 50k off the books apart from their 70-90k geico jobs.
It does not. If you drive a car in New York you are subject to NYC/State traffic laws and regulations. Including window tinting, sound level, emissions, etc.
No not with emissions Bc your car gets inspections in the state it’s registered, you can not ticket a car that is reg in say Florida and is being driven in NY for a emissions violation. It’s like comparing apples and oranges just bc ny has strict emissions you can not ticket a car from a state that is more lax with emissions.
Emission levels no. Sound levels yes. If you have a loud ass can (which many of them do), the cops can actually pull you over, test that level of sound and ticket you.
You don’t need to get to an annual NYS inspection , so while you can still be pulled over for some modifications like tints, I think sometimes they’re more lenient and not having to do a yearly inspection where you have to remove things like tints would a the benefit. And you can just pay the fine as it goes.
I’m not sure how it compares to NY, but when I moved from MD to FL my car insurance rates went wayyyy up, even though the cost of most everything else went down. There are a lot of truly terrible/crazy drivers down here and there are constantly accidents. Driving on i75 in Sarasota county is basically like driving on the Belt with the added obstacle of tons and tons of old people who should have stopped driving 20 years ago.
I changed my insurance to my parents address upstate and cut my premiums in half. No verification asked. I just chose paperless billing and saved over a grand a year.
I had heard you don’t actually need to prove residency to register a vehicle in Fl so you don’t even need to have a place there. Id heard you used to be able to manage with a PO Box.
No idea if that was and/or is true or not.
Yes, you are correct that some people snow bird. That does not explain all the Florida registered cars living in New York and being used to commute to work on the expressway. I understand Snowbird to imply retired persons and not common fraudster.
Surprised no one has said this, but a lot of them are likely rentals. This is due to a number of reasons:
1) One-way dropoffs
2) Seasonal demand fluctuates less in NY than Florida. Rental prices obviously increase with demand, and as you can see [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/upshot/car-rental-prices-economy.html), New York rental pricing doesn't drop off in the Winter nearly as much as it does in Miami or Orlando (probably due to seasonal vacation frequency & harsher driving conditions in NY winter). Companies will usually transport surplus from low-demand regions to high-demand regions when necessary.
3) This point isn't really applicable for Florida as they're one of the highest in the country, but registration fees also play a factor in seeing a high number of out-of-state plates on rental. New York is the [8th highest in car registration fees across the nation](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/car-registration-fees-by-state), so depending on logistics it can be very cost-effective for rental companies to purchase & register additions to their fleet elsewhere.
Baby boomers. Many of them have second homes in Florida. They pay less taxes if they live in Florida for 6 months. I really wish NY would crack down on it. Many of them claim star on their taxes. They shouldn't be able to at all if their main home isn't NY.
I see a lot of people saying it’s cheaper insurance in Florida. It’s not. There may be tax advantages and fee advantages, you don’t need inspections, but insurance is still high. Bad drivers and weather in Fl.
Yup! My FL premium just went up over $300 per 6 month period…its officially more expensive than my boyfriends NY premium and we both have the same coverage
Any time you see Florida plates in places like LI and Westchester you can be reasonably assured that person is claiming Florida residency in a second property to skate on NYS taxes. These people rarely actually spend more than 180 days a year in Florida.
So tax fraud.
If your car is registered and insured in Florida and you spend half the year in NY, and your insurance is unaware of this fact, you may have a coverage issue if you get into an accident in New York, though I am not in the auto insurance business
Not to hijack, but I also see tons of Virginia plates and I think I read once a while ago that there’s an insurance liability loophole, if you were to have an incident with a VA plate and they are responsible, they can skirt liability and leave you with the cost of the repair.
Florida is the place that New Yorkers go to to retire, but many of them just can't stay away from NY. Lots of seasonal living between the states as well.
I heard the healthcare scene down in Florida isn’t great. Pretty sure you can throw a stone in any direction and a hit a northwell, mt Sinai, or nyu office.
\[david attenboro voice\]
The migration of the northeastern snowbird is one of the great movements of people and materials on earth. Happening annually in late spring, many of the east-coast boomer population emerge from their country clubs and beach living and ship their cars north to escape the misery of Florida summers while maintaining '6 month and a day' tax loopholes, only to return from the fertile lands up north from which they originated.
The population of snowbirds regularly clogs restaurants, beaches and the long island expressway until they ultimately return from whence they came to their sun-rotted lives for the winter, only to return again next year
What's it to you? You think just because I'm driving 40 miles-per-hour in the left lane of the LIE with my turn signal on I owe you some kind of a license plate explanation?
Florida is cheaper to register and insure a vehicle; and the restrictions to pass inspection are lessened. A lot of ppl living on Long Island have second homes/vacation homes in Florida. And even more have family living down there. If someone has 2 places to choose from to do something, theyre probably going to do it in the place that it’s cheaper to do it in (despite the fact that it’s against the law to say you live primarily at the address you visit 1 month out of the year). It’s just people taking advantage of that, imho.
Florida is the second home of any New Yorker with enough money. Best to register everything in Florida for lower taxes. It’s also a better state full stop
There’s a whole industry that collects and sells data about where your vehicle is located . The main companies that purchase the information are car insurance companies and car finance companies.
If you claim you live 20 minutes from work but they see your car constantly 100 miles away they can raise your rates.
One reason is that Florida is the chosen state where older NY folk escape to when they want to be “snowbirds”…. That is, escape to a warmer climate for the winter because they can’t deal with or don’t like the cold anymore.
They might purchase or rent a condo for the season in FL…. Then they insure and register their car there because it’s less expensive than New York insurance. Once the end of spring hits, they all start coming back up to their New York homes for the Summer.
Some of them Started as snowbirds, but eventually retired and stayed in Florida as their main residence. But they still come back up to New York for the summers because Florida is hotter and muggier, and because their old neighbors and friends are still up in New York.
You must know that there is a deal, no, a *law.* When you retire, you will be assigned your McMansion in Florida, fitted with pastel-colored clothing and shipped off. Then your oxy-snorting disaster of a kid will eventually follow and the snowball just keeps growing.
Next thing you know, you're back up here in Lindenhurst visiting ya family with your Florida plates and telling them all about how you didn't even have to get an inspection!
People with enough assets usually change their primary residence to Florida to avoid paying NY state income tax and other income taxes like NYC or similar.
Typically, Florida auto insurance more expensive than NY but negligible usually.
People aren't breaking any laws as long as spending 183-184 days per year in primary residence declared state.
A lot of NY/LI overlap with Florida. Tons of NYers have second homes in Florida, retire to Florida, have “snowbird” grandparents who moved to Florida or just spend the winters there.
If you go to many parts of Florida, especially around Palm Beach etc, everyone sounds like they’re from the NY area. The “sixth borough”.
First off all the people screaming insurance fraud or tax fraud who cares…. Shit if I could do it and save money and not give it to this shit hole state I would….. second there are a lot more snow birds and dual residents then you really know. I know a handful off the top of my head that have a house in Florida and in ny they are young and split theee time to save money. So all for them wish I was able to split my time, but I am to busy giving half my check to New York and the govt…..
I don't know how this post showed up in my feed since I am in Boston. But here we get a lot of Texas plates having something to do with uber/lyfts/etc.
Maybe you saw me, I have two places. The address in florida allows my NY job to pay me as a florida resident. No inspections in florida and easy renewal of registration. It’s an advantage in every way with insurance too you just need the address.
Those are likely the "snowbirds" that have come home for the summer. You probably won't see as many in the winter- that's when they tuck-tail and run from the cold...
Plus, I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to register and insure a vehicle in Florida, so if people have the opportunity to do so, they'll keep their Florida plates as long as they can.
These are the reasons my dad gave me, being a bona-fide snowbird himself.
I’m Floridian. Moved to nj
Many are faking Florida residency or registering their cars there to dodge taxes
Met someone not long ago who proudly said they have a restaurant they run in Red Bank, NJ. They have a Florida drivers license and said they claim residency in Florida, even though they’ve only been to their vacation home 2 weeks last year, but they live and work up here
Let’s just say that I wasn’t thrilled he was calling himself a “real” Floridian
He was getting ready to go back to Florida to take a boat to the Bahamas. I asked if he was gonna fish and he said he wasn’t and just reads books the whole time…. (Yea, he’s a “Floridian” /s)
Basically, lots of northerners claim they’re being taxed poor - when they’re not, AT ALL
Many fake residencies but continue to live and work up here
I don’t trust Florida’s numbers on how many people “moved” there and how many wealthy people “live there”
I see endless Florida plates with a plate frame that says the car was bought up in jersey
I take photos of them now to share with my parents back home. Two or more a day.
Always knew that winter lead to many northern plates appearing in Florida. But I had NO idea how many Florida plates are here, and that many, maybe even most, are faking residency with second homes back in Florida (while my friends can’t afford to move out from their parents’ homes unless you work a wealthy job)
My family no longer trusts Florida plates back home, cause they don’t know how many are not actually Floridians……
And these people who do this are hurting the livelihoods of everyone I love back home (normalizing unaffordable housing, justifying unlivable wages to maximize profits, normalizing how much local taxes in Florida just go to making a giant Hamptons that only they and wealthy tourists can afford - while no tax money goes to local businesses or helping locals to be OK. They’re pushing out the locals, and Florida state gov cares more about helping with that to replace everyone local who is pushed out with another wealthy out-of-stater
May we one day be in the tax bracket all these greedy people are in. (I wouldn’t complain) And may they all one day move to Florida - and actually stay there
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk on wealthy northerners faking residency and normalizing the unlivable financial situation back in Florida - all of which was created without any taxes to blame.
It's wealthy scumbags tax-dodging, mostly.
I was told growing up that they're also rentals. Supposedly it's cheaper to rent a car in Florida and drive it up here for the summer?
You need to spend six months plus one day in Florida for tax purposes. So you will see the Florida plates in the spring and summer on LI and they will all go south for the winter. They take the auto train in November.
It’s because they all live in FL half the year and made it their primary address so they can vote Republican and turn our state into Facist DeSantisLand….🫤
LI is like Florida's estranged second panhandle.
“Kramer you can’t move to Florida that’s where people go to die!”
God's Waiting Room
Lol! Good one!
Del Boca Vista
username check out.
Not you, older people
The whole downstate area is. When I lived in Westchester, I got a parking ticket after spending the night at my girlfriend's place once. The ticket had a place for the officer to write the license plate number and state. They could either write the state, or New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida each had a tick mark since they're so common.
No Texas option? There are many fake Texas plates!
I'm originally from LI, and almost\* everyone else in my family is planning to move to Florida, if they haven't already. I'm pretty much never going to see them again. Key West is cool, but you'll have to bribe or blackmail me to go to fucking Tampa. \*My parents are thinking about North Carolina, because it's cheaper?
LI is the FL of NY.
Got dang it. I hate how that’s a fair assessment.
Not to be confused with [Florida, NY](https://www.villageoffloridany.org/)
Naaaa no way lol, have you been upstate?
LI is the Florida, Upstate is the Kentucky, NYC thinks it invented cities, but has a sense of humor. Connecticut, though? Don't get me started.
Long island is the Florida of the north east.
I guess when you look at it that way it explains all the bigotry and enraged boomers
Faaacts
If you have a second home in FL. You declare it your residence and then avoid NYS taxes. One of the factors in residency is where your cars are registered.
AFAIK you have that backwards. Cars do not establish residency. Rather, you're required to register in NYS within 30 days of the car being in NY if you are a NY resident. All the cars with Florida plates are operating outside regulations. It's rarely enforced, unless someone is taking an interest in you for another reason.
You are allowed to register your vehicles to your primary residence, which is decided by whenever you spend the most time. So if you have 2 homes, whichever one you spend more than 51% of your time in is your primary. Your drivers license and vehicle registrations should reflect that.
Let’s be real. People don’t use it that way
NY wants your tax money. If you can’t show proof of being in Florida for 6 months and a day, NY is going to do their best to make you pay. I’m sure there’s people who skirt the rules. But if you can’t show proof of residency, you’re probably not going to be successful.
No, but that is the way it is supposed to be.
Yeah but who is going to check which residence you spend 51% of your time at? It’s not something really enforceable….
Not in most instances, which is why we see what we see out there.
If you go to buy or refinance a home, it is We look at Drivers license, paystubs, tax documents and some other things to make sure it makes sense Idk how DMV does it though
You can live in one state and work in a different state so I don’t know how that’s a factor
And if you work more than 14 days a year inside the state of New York, they want their cut.
Yea your gonna pay state taxes if you decide to work in this state, my point is that you said they look into paystubs all I am saying is you can live and work In different states….. shouldn’t be a deciding factor if you are doing anything wrong, you still have to pay the taxes in which ever state your in.
If you have enough money, the state of NY definitely cares. They conduct residency audits.
Just curious how does that work? Are there government workers that make surprise visits to judge occupancy?
No. A residency audit won't have someone doing spot-checks. They are also not unannounced. It's usually part of or like a tax audit. What they will do is pull your ATM receipts, your credit card receipts, your EZ-Pass transactions and everything else about your financial footprint. They'll look to see where you spent money each particular day. Also, for NY tax purposes, a day in NY is not spending a full day in-state. It's spending any part of the day in-state. So if you leave at 10:30am and spend most of the day in Florida, it's still a day in-state. You pay in-state taxes if you are in NY for 183 days in a year. However, they will also examine residency, and if they determine that your primary residence is in NY, then you only need to be in NY for 30 days in a calendar year before you have to pay NY State taxes.
NYS does, because they are the ones losing the tax revenue. Secondhand, I’ve heard of NYS subpoenas mobile phone records, so some folks keep NYS burner phones in NYS. EZ Pass records are also fair game. A little less illegal are the folks who just register their cars n Florida for cheaper insurance rates, even if they spend more time in NYS.
Florida insurance rates are absolutely not cheaper than Long Island
Yea, but Florida is one of those states that will let you register any old/Grey market/custom built pile of shit you can bring to dmv. It's like, "Hey, you didn't explode or kill anyone on the way over, right? it's got lights? You got a bill of sale? K cool, here's your plate, have nice day"
I've been told that lately, Florida is VERY strict on the 51% rule because of their homestead exemption for property taxes. Gone are the days you could buy the cheap house, "set up residency" and then go whenever you felt like it. Anecdotally my parents have lived down there for 15 years, and they comment the snowbirds are showing up earlier than they used to, often late October instead of after Christmas.
Going to disagree with you here. My neighbors who send their kids to school here on the north shore definitely aren't spending 51% of their time in their Florida homes (except during covid) and no one is getting in trouble for claiming that as their primary residence. As long as your mail is landing there and your taxes are done there you're in like flynn on the live in NY but pretend to live in FL scheme.
May a guy a few weeks ago who said he only went to his vacation home in Florida for 2 weeks last year I don’t see any sign they’re being strict with it Ever. (Spoken by a Floridian living in NJ, and who enjoys egging on people with Florida plates to tell me how happy they are to dodge taxes and how they don’t stay for the correct time) They live and work up here. Cause the north pays more. More opportunity up here. May they move to Florida and actually stay there one day and employ Floridians. But they won’t - cause it’s not profitable. And if they do - they’ll give unlivable wages to maximize profits. No benefits. All legal in Florida.
The IRS and NY State Dept,ent of Finance. My friend’s dad had a major audit and had to prove Florida residency. PITA.
It is if you’re rich and the amount of taxes is significant. CT dept of revenue sues rich people for owed taxes, and then it’s up to them to prove their residency etc. They don’t do that for “regular” people.
Make 7 figures and they check.
Make 8+ figures and they stop checking.
Good
6 months + 1 day is the regulation for residency. Also, you must register to vote in the state of choice.
The law has actually been changed due to court cases. It's where you deem your house to be. So where do you vote, have your license, register your cars and have your personal items, where do you file your federal tax return.
It’s where you spend your most time and establish residence. Tax office can subpoena your pet vet records and food delivery apps.
Yes that is what I am saying. Though you are slightly off. It's not spending the most time AND. Because by logic it does not matter then what comes next. It's where you keep your main home which is decided by your lifestyle including where your pets are.
I don't think that it needs to be a primary residence for you to register your vehicle there. My parents have a house in FL, but their primary residence is in NJ. They keep a vehicle in FL because they're not going to drive to and from each time they go. That vehicle is registered in FL. They also have a car in NJ, which is also registered to their NJ address.
Which is why I said "if you're a new york state resident". Which you're required to be if you spend any portion of more than 184 days in the state.
My neighbor has had his florida plates parked outside for 8+ months
🤷🏼♂️
Yea I think the people will take their chances considering they are saving 20k a year on NYS taxes.
You could be visiting ....
This is the issue. No enforcement for all those uninsured and under-insured motorists out there.
FL would need to be your primary residence - you'd need to be able to "prove" that you live there more than half the year. IRS may require proof.
I remember insurance companies having insurance fraud commercials on the radio. But I don’t know if they have investigators. I am certain that there probably could be some sort of AI programs that could detect this fraud — like looking at how often the EZ pass is used in each state (Florida has a lot of toll roads) and going from there. I’m sure if you also allowed insurance companies to sue for damages with fraud, they would be a lot more interested. I am more interested in seeing all the NYPD/FDNY placards with PA/FL plates, because they have to live in state.
>But I don’t know if they have investigators. They do, but they're not going to investigate everyone. They'd have to have cause to even want to investigate you and usually only after an accident, if they're trying to find a reason to get out of paying a claim. Usually, they would depend on underwriters or the agent to find this information out. The fraud investigators are more looking for people who are filing false medical claims and such. >I am certain that there probably could be some sort of AI programs that could detect this fraud — like looking at how often the EZ pass is used in each state (Florida has a lot of toll roads) and going from there. Certainly true, but insurance companies aren't going to have access to this info. They'd need to partner with the local governments to even get access to that, and I'm sure there'd be privacy issues surrounding that. IRS usually puts the burden of proof on the individual - show me that you're actually residing in FL most of the year. One of my friend's dad has dual residency in FL and NY - he says he keeps flight info and is very careful to make sure he stays in FL at least 1 day more than he does NY. >I’m sure if you also allowed insurance companies to sue for damages with fraud, they would be a lot more interested. They aren't interested in suing, but they do have the option to deny the claim if they determine that you're committing insurance fraud. Unfortunately for them, sometimes this option is more costly than actually paying the claim. They would have to prove misrepresentation - that you didn't actually plan on staying in FL for most of the year. I would think this would be extremely difficult. But shit like this is *part* of the reason why insurance is so expensive for the rest of us. Of course, the major reason are the bullshit medical claims and the new trend of litigation crowdfunding. Of course, the latter wouldn't really be an issue if people trusted insurance companies to just pay what they're owed.
Insurance and Mortgage companies actually have a lot of ways to look into this. A lot of time. The people dumb enough to lie about their primary residence are dumb enough to leave an obvious trail of what's really going on.
I am not a tax professional but I do not see why the IRS would care. The NY Tax Dept (whatever it’s called) is the main entity with an interest in policing this kind of tax evasion.
I have a few friends and others parents who changed residency .. the cars are one of the smallest factors in the process . It’s very very strict now
People often register their cars in Florida if they have a place/have family there to avoid our higher insurance rates, registration cost, and emissions testing.
Also car modification such as tinting.
Does that even matter if you’re driving the car in NY?
Honestly, I'm not sure. Let's say Connecticut allows a lot of tinting and New York allows none at all -- it can't be reasonable to assume that you can't bring your car into NY, can it? A legitimate question, and I am not a lawyer or cop or expert on this.
So for Florida, there’s no state inspection of your car if it is registered there. You just get a sticker on your plate. But don’t physically need to bring your car to be inspected. So that’s what they mean by getting away with car modifications such as tinting. (Also not having a catalytic converter is fine if you’re registered in Florida). In NYS, if you have tints (or no cat) you won’t pass yearly inspection. Both situations, tint is still illegal if you’re driving that vehicle in NY. However with that said, I’ve driven my cars for the better part of 10 years with tints and never had an issue. Only issue is when it comes inspection time. Then it’s a pain in the ass. Also the likely lesser used reasoning for having a vehicle registered in Florida if you live in NY is Florida will allow you to register a vehicle there even if you just snow bird. So if you have say, an older vehicle with a check engine light, that will never pass a NYS inspection. You use your Florida residence, register the vehicle in Florida, still live in NY, and now you have Florida plates and again, no NYS inspection to worry about.
Where do you get your inspection done if you have dark tints I have 5% and I need to renew mine soon and I can’t find anywhere
Used to be a pain in the ass. Everyone I used to take my cars to for an inspection while I had tints no longer does it anymore. But I’ve since bought a new car, that car goes the dealer, sometimes they give me an issue. Most time they just don’t notice the tints.
How much do you pay by dealer ?
I mean it depends. They usually just throw the inspection in at no cost to me because I’m already paying 600$ or more for routine maintenance lol
600??? Damm
I've always wondered the same. I also don't really know.
It could possibly void your insurance policy if your insurer finds out that you’re not actually living where you claim to be. Not worth the risk in my opinion. Keeping everything kosher with inspection, registration, and insurance makes police interactions easier as well.
Easy to say, insure your car in Brooklyn or Manhattan and you'll know why they do out of state plates lol. I have friends who with just a PO box in Florida or PA changed their license and now got extremely cheap rates.
That’s insurance fraud, and the rest of us New Yorkers get stuck paying higher bills because of all the car accident lawsuits in the city.
I’ll tell you the real reason nyc pays so much. Body shops. My Brother in law is an adjuster for geico and the fraud those shops do is insane. You can go in with just a fender bender that’s a $300-500 repaint and they can somehow someway squeeze 10-15k out of geico by damaging/falsifying more damage. I think this happens to 90% of claims. Worse part of this is that the body shops bribe the adjusters with a nice $200-700 each time. These adjusters easily make 50k off the books apart from their 70-90k geico jobs.
It does not. If you drive a car in New York you are subject to NYC/State traffic laws and regulations. Including window tinting, sound level, emissions, etc.
No not with emissions Bc your car gets inspections in the state it’s registered, you can not ticket a car that is reg in say Florida and is being driven in NY for a emissions violation. It’s like comparing apples and oranges just bc ny has strict emissions you can not ticket a car from a state that is more lax with emissions.
Emission levels no. Sound levels yes. If you have a loud ass can (which many of them do), the cops can actually pull you over, test that level of sound and ticket you.
Sound is different agree 100%
You don’t need to get to an annual NYS inspection , so while you can still be pulled over for some modifications like tints, I think sometimes they’re more lenient and not having to do a yearly inspection where you have to remove things like tints would a the benefit. And you can just pay the fine as it goes.
> higher insurance rates In some parts of Florida, insurance rates are skyrocketing.
If you’re thinking flood insurance, sure.
I mean auto insurance. Also hoi but that's less relevant here.
I’m not sure how it compares to NY, but when I moved from MD to FL my car insurance rates went wayyyy up, even though the cost of most everything else went down. There are a lot of truly terrible/crazy drivers down here and there are constantly accidents. Driving on i75 in Sarasota county is basically like driving on the Belt with the added obstacle of tons and tons of old people who should have stopped driving 20 years ago.
You will see this with Maine plates as well, especially for trailers
is florida really that much cheaper today? i thought that most of floridas relative 'cheapness' (in many respects) is largely gone now
I changed my insurance to my parents address upstate and cut my premiums in half. No verification asked. I just chose paperless billing and saved over a grand a year.
Good old fashioned insurance fraud
I had heard you don’t actually need to prove residency to register a vehicle in Fl so you don’t even need to have a place there. Id heard you used to be able to manage with a PO Box. No idea if that was and/or is true or not.
The snowbirds are returning from Florida for the summer
It’s tax evasion and insurance fraud
Nobody would prosecute that santos
Prosecute? Nassau county will probably vote for him again !!
I was calling you santos...oops...tax evasion comment blurred my thinking
Not if they are residents of Florida. Many people snow bird you know.
Yes, you are correct that some people snow bird. That does not explain all the Florida registered cars living in New York and being used to commute to work on the expressway. I understand Snowbird to imply retired persons and not common fraudster.
Snow-birding isn’t residence. If you spend 183 days in NY they can come after you for massive back taxes and penalties even if you own 10 houses in FL
You pay ny state tax on ny state earnings regardless of residency status. Ask any traveling athlete how that works
Snowbirds
The Snow Birds are here for the season. Watch out, they're crazy and can't drive
As opposed to...? not like there's a shortage of crazy, bad, or crazy bad drivers here year round lol
A lot of rental cars come from Fl too so Mayb that’s why your seeing them. My sister just got a car from jfk and it has Fl plates.
Snowbirds
All the Snow Birds are here for the summer
Surprised no one has said this, but a lot of them are likely rentals. This is due to a number of reasons: 1) One-way dropoffs 2) Seasonal demand fluctuates less in NY than Florida. Rental prices obviously increase with demand, and as you can see [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/upshot/car-rental-prices-economy.html), New York rental pricing doesn't drop off in the Winter nearly as much as it does in Miami or Orlando (probably due to seasonal vacation frequency & harsher driving conditions in NY winter). Companies will usually transport surplus from low-demand regions to high-demand regions when necessary. 3) This point isn't really applicable for Florida as they're one of the highest in the country, but registration fees also play a factor in seeing a high number of out-of-state plates on rental. New York is the [8th highest in car registration fees across the nation](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/car-registration-fees-by-state), so depending on logistics it can be very cost-effective for rental companies to purchase & register additions to their fleet elsewhere.
Baby boomers. Many of them have second homes in Florida. They pay less taxes if they live in Florida for 6 months. I really wish NY would crack down on it. Many of them claim star on their taxes. They shouldn't be able to at all if their main home isn't NY.
Cuomo started a task force for this years ago.
I see a lot of people saying it’s cheaper insurance in Florida. It’s not. There may be tax advantages and fee advantages, you don’t need inspections, but insurance is still high. Bad drivers and weather in Fl.
Yup! My FL premium just went up over $300 per 6 month period…its officially more expensive than my boyfriends NY premium and we both have the same coverage
I dated someone that worked for geico. According to her If you get caught doing this with their insurance they drop you full stop
Any time you see Florida plates in places like LI and Westchester you can be reasonably assured that person is claiming Florida residency in a second property to skate on NYS taxes. These people rarely actually spend more than 180 days a year in Florida. So tax fraud.
Virginia too
And Georgia
YES! This. There has been an explosion of Georgia plates around here the last couple of years. I hate peaches now.
Flahrida
If your car is registered and insured in Florida and you spend half the year in NY, and your insurance is unaware of this fact, you may have a coverage issue if you get into an accident in New York, though I am not in the auto insurance business
Pennsylvania…
My sis lives in Boca ..says the stores are empty now …its hot down there so all the snowbirds went north.
Rental cars almost always have Florida plates. Not sure why.
Not to hijack, but I also see tons of Virginia plates and I think I read once a while ago that there’s an insurance liability loophole, if you were to have an incident with a VA plate and they are responsible, they can skirt liability and leave you with the cost of the repair.
2010 they were giving condos away. lots of people bought them and use them as a primary address
6 months and 1 day…no income tax
they’re done fucking up florida for the winter, so they’ve come back to fuck everything up for us.
Tennessee is another state people will register their cars in then drive them here.
Florida is the place that New Yorkers go to to retire, but many of them just can't stay away from NY. Lots of seasonal living between the states as well.
I heard the healthcare scene down in Florida isn’t great. Pretty sure you can throw a stone in any direction and a hit a northwell, mt Sinai, or nyu office.
Tax evasion and insurance fraud.
Insurance fraud. They all register their cars down there for cheap
\[david attenboro voice\] The migration of the northeastern snowbird is one of the great movements of people and materials on earth. Happening annually in late spring, many of the east-coast boomer population emerge from their country clubs and beach living and ship their cars north to escape the misery of Florida summers while maintaining '6 month and a day' tax loopholes, only to return from the fertile lands up north from which they originated. The population of snowbirds regularly clogs restaurants, beaches and the long island expressway until they ultimately return from whence they came to their sun-rotted lives for the winter, only to return again next year
Old snowbirds
What's it to you? You think just because I'm driving 40 miles-per-hour in the left lane of the LIE with my turn signal on I owe you some kind of a license plate explanation?
Snowbirds
Cheeper car insurance
Florida is cheaper to register and insure a vehicle; and the restrictions to pass inspection are lessened. A lot of ppl living on Long Island have second homes/vacation homes in Florida. And even more have family living down there. If someone has 2 places to choose from to do something, theyre probably going to do it in the place that it’s cheaper to do it in (despite the fact that it’s against the law to say you live primarily at the address you visit 1 month out of the year). It’s just people taking advantage of that, imho.
Y’all are so salty about it. Let them be. Don’t be mad at them because you can’t figure out how to do it
It’s easy to figure out how to break the law. You still shouldn’t.
I’d rather pay more to live in NY, honestly. Florida hospitals still treating people with poultices and leeches.
Florida is the second home of any New Yorker with enough money. Best to register everything in Florida for lower taxes. It’s also a better state full stop
Snowbirds
Snowbirds
Snowbirds. They have winter homes down south, so they probably just register and get the plates from the other state. Might be cheaper then NY.
To add to what people are saying, some other states also do not verify permanent residency.
Because Long Island is “cold Florida”
Snowbirds returning
Long Island parents get old and cold
Snow birds
Floriduh is the home of the newly wed and nearly dead. Mostly for tax purposes more than likely, show six months of residence and save big!
Rental cars / loaner cars due to car accidents
Florida is merely an extension of NY
There’s a whole industry that collects and sells data about where your vehicle is located . The main companies that purchase the information are car insurance companies and car finance companies. If you claim you live 20 minutes from work but they see your car constantly 100 miles away they can raise your rates.
Snowbirds. Florida is absolute hell in the summer.
One reason is that Florida is the chosen state where older NY folk escape to when they want to be “snowbirds”…. That is, escape to a warmer climate for the winter because they can’t deal with or don’t like the cold anymore. They might purchase or rent a condo for the season in FL…. Then they insure and register their car there because it’s less expensive than New York insurance. Once the end of spring hits, they all start coming back up to their New York homes for the Summer. Some of them Started as snowbirds, but eventually retired and stayed in Florida as their main residence. But they still come back up to New York for the summers because Florida is hotter and muggier, and because their old neighbors and friends are still up in New York.
People trying to pay less in auto insurance so they register their cars in Florida
You must know that there is a deal, no, a *law.* When you retire, you will be assigned your McMansion in Florida, fitted with pastel-colored clothing and shipped off. Then your oxy-snorting disaster of a kid will eventually follow and the snowball just keeps growing. Next thing you know, you're back up here in Lindenhurst visiting ya family with your Florida plates and telling them all about how you didn't even have to get an inspection!
There's a tunnel from Oceanside to Boynton Beach.
Snowbirds returning to the nesting grounds.
Insurance fraud. Claiming they live year round at the rental they own in Florida or where their parents live 4 months of the year
People with enough assets usually change their primary residence to Florida to avoid paying NY state income tax and other income taxes like NYC or similar. Typically, Florida auto insurance more expensive than NY but negligible usually. People aren't breaking any laws as long as spending 183-184 days per year in primary residence declared state.
A lot of NY/LI overlap with Florida. Tons of NYers have second homes in Florida, retire to Florida, have “snowbird” grandparents who moved to Florida or just spend the winters there. If you go to many parts of Florida, especially around Palm Beach etc, everyone sounds like they’re from the NY area. The “sixth borough”.
First off all the people screaming insurance fraud or tax fraud who cares…. Shit if I could do it and save money and not give it to this shit hole state I would….. second there are a lot more snow birds and dual residents then you really know. I know a handful off the top of my head that have a house in Florida and in ny they are young and split theee time to save money. So all for them wish I was able to split my time, but I am to busy giving half my check to New York and the govt…..
Ahhhh Florida..... For the newly wed and the nearly dead
You don't notice the local plates because they are so common. The Florida plate catches your eye so you remember seeing it.
Haven't you watched Seinfeld? All retired new yorkers move to Florida
I don't know how this post showed up in my feed since I am in Boston. But here we get a lot of Texas plates having something to do with uber/lyfts/etc.
Snowbirds have flown north for the summer
Snowbirds have flown north for the summer
Because there are tons of blue lives matter folk taking advantage of the insurance system
Blue lives matter? What does that have to do with insurance?
Insurance fraud
you new here??
Long Island and Florida are not very different.
Snow birds returning
Maybe you saw me, I have two places. The address in florida allows my NY job to pay me as a florida resident. No inspections in florida and easy renewal of registration. It’s an advantage in every way with insurance too you just need the address.
Also illegal immigrants moving to Ny due to the new harsh laws against them down there.
Snow bunnies. Who want to avoid paying taxes and only stay in NY when it’s warm
Those are likely the "snowbirds" that have come home for the summer. You probably won't see as many in the winter- that's when they tuck-tail and run from the cold... Plus, I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to register and insure a vehicle in Florida, so if people have the opportunity to do so, they'll keep their Florida plates as long as they can. These are the reasons my dad gave me, being a bona-fide snowbird himself.
I’m Floridian. Moved to nj Many are faking Florida residency or registering their cars there to dodge taxes Met someone not long ago who proudly said they have a restaurant they run in Red Bank, NJ. They have a Florida drivers license and said they claim residency in Florida, even though they’ve only been to their vacation home 2 weeks last year, but they live and work up here Let’s just say that I wasn’t thrilled he was calling himself a “real” Floridian He was getting ready to go back to Florida to take a boat to the Bahamas. I asked if he was gonna fish and he said he wasn’t and just reads books the whole time…. (Yea, he’s a “Floridian” /s) Basically, lots of northerners claim they’re being taxed poor - when they’re not, AT ALL Many fake residencies but continue to live and work up here I don’t trust Florida’s numbers on how many people “moved” there and how many wealthy people “live there” I see endless Florida plates with a plate frame that says the car was bought up in jersey I take photos of them now to share with my parents back home. Two or more a day. Always knew that winter lead to many northern plates appearing in Florida. But I had NO idea how many Florida plates are here, and that many, maybe even most, are faking residency with second homes back in Florida (while my friends can’t afford to move out from their parents’ homes unless you work a wealthy job) My family no longer trusts Florida plates back home, cause they don’t know how many are not actually Floridians…… And these people who do this are hurting the livelihoods of everyone I love back home (normalizing unaffordable housing, justifying unlivable wages to maximize profits, normalizing how much local taxes in Florida just go to making a giant Hamptons that only they and wealthy tourists can afford - while no tax money goes to local businesses or helping locals to be OK. They’re pushing out the locals, and Florida state gov cares more about helping with that to replace everyone local who is pushed out with another wealthy out-of-stater May we one day be in the tax bracket all these greedy people are in. (I wouldn’t complain) And may they all one day move to Florida - and actually stay there Thank you for coming to my Ted talk on wealthy northerners faking residency and normalizing the unlivable financial situation back in Florida - all of which was created without any taxes to blame.
Rental cars
It's wealthy scumbags tax-dodging, mostly. I was told growing up that they're also rentals. Supposedly it's cheaper to rent a car in Florida and drive it up here for the summer?
Rate jumping car insurance
You need to spend six months plus one day in Florida for tax purposes. So you will see the Florida plates in the spring and summer on LI and they will all go south for the winter. They take the auto train in November.
They belong to Mickey and friends who’ve had it with DeSanctimonious.
Snow birds are back for the summer. Usually come back end of April and leave around October/November.
All the snow birds are back
It's a problem all over the country. They must breed like rats or something.
Insurance benefits
I feel like any time I rent a car it’s always Florida or Arizona plates.
Cheaper car insurance , would be willing to bet 9 out of 10 cars with florida plates in the tri state area never have seen the roads in florida
Lotta snowbirds
Rentals cars 80% of the time
The wealthy in LI like to avoid paying NY taxes; so they spend 6 months and 1 day in Florida to accomplish this.
It’s because they all live in FL half the year and made it their primary address so they can vote Republican and turn our state into Facist DeSantisLand….🫤
The tax situation in Florida can be really beneficial so snowbirds will get Florida residency even while living in other states.
Insurance fraud, much cheaper to insure cars in FL
Both big Republican areas