# Any state tax for an US expat who grew up abroad?



## netexpat1 (Jul 8, 2020)

A US citizen/expat was born in US and left US when he was a kid. He has been living abroad ever since. He turns 18 years old and is working. He needs to file federal tax. Does he need to file state tax? If so, what state does he belong to? The last state he was living as a child before he left US?


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## 255 (Sep 8, 2018)

netexpat1 -- It depends. Yes, in general, both income taxes and voter registration are based on the last state you lived in prior to going overseas. A lot of potential expats move to states that do not have any income taxes prior to moving overseas -- to eliminate potential future state income taxes. The law varies between the states; some require taxes to be collected, other states don't. Enforcement is another issue -- some states are aggressive in pursuing back taxes they perceive that they are owed and others frankly think it's too much trouble. I would seriously question why you would come up on a states "radar" after being gone for such a long time. I suspect it generally won't be worth the effort for any state to pursue you overseas, especially, if they have no knowledge of you!

If it was me, and I wanted to register to vote -- I would think about picking Florida or another no tax state, perhaps by getting an address with an RV oriented mail forwarding service and would try to stay off the books if I came from a high tax state. Cheers, 255


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

I would first question whether it makes sense to file any US tax returns. 

If said expat has citizenship in their country of residence, no US financial assets, and no plans to move to the US any time soon, then they are generally better off staying out of the US tax system.


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## Moulard (Feb 3, 2017)

netexpat1 said:


> A US citizen/expat was born in US and left US when he was a kid. He has been living abroad ever since. He turns 18 years old and is working. He needs to file federal tax. Does he need to file state tax? If so, what state does he belong to? The last state he was living as a child before he left US?


Don't know if "the kid" is you or your child... but the answers are the same..

*State Taxes*
The kid only needs to file state taxes if you are a tax resident of that state or if they have income sourced from within that state that is above the state's filing requirement. They clearly are not a resident of that state, nor have a domicile there.

From what you state above chances of them having a state filing requirement is likely next to zero. If they did, you would have 1099 or other US tax paperwork that would indicate that requirement. 

*Voting*
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act requires that all US States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands allow US citizens who reside abroad to vote by absentee ballot in Federal Elections ( ie. President, Vice President, Senate and House election only - not State, County, Municipal elections)

Think of it as the response to the "no taxation without representation" by the Reagan Administration.

The rules on how this is administered vary from state to state. 

Typically you can register to vote:

In the state where you last registered to vote, or
In the state where you were last a resident (if you never registered to vote)

Its worth noting that some states also allow US citizens who were never resident in the US (i.e. overseas born US citizens who have never lived in the US) to register to vote in that State if one of their parents was last resident or registered to vote.

There are a couple of non-partisan organizations that can help the kid to register to vote and request an absentee ballot. This is the one that I have used.

https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/vote/home.htm

You can equally look up the website of the relevant State Electoral Commission and do it that way. But the advantage of the overseas vote type organisations is they will help you to pre-fill out the right form for the right state and give you the details of the municipal clerk to send it to.

Typically overseas voters, who live overseas permanently need to re-register each year.

Once registered it is worth noting, that because ballot papers have typically been mailed, and mailed late, the UOCAVA also allows for an emergency backup ballot known as the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot where

The FWAB can be cast by voters who "have made a timely application for but have not received their regular ballot from the state or territory in a timely manner.


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