Yesterday I was looking into tax residency for my D at an OOS college (http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2129372-did-your-kid-get-tax-residency-at-their-oos-school-if-so-when-and-how.html#latest) and wwith the help of @BelknapPoint we determined that she had become a resident of the new state (UT) at that time she registered to vote there. But the consequence of that decision is that from 2019 onwards she will no longer live with us for more than half the year (including temporary absences), because her decision to register to vote in Utah requires her to be a resident there and "“You are considered a resident of Utah if your principal place of residence is in the state and you have the intention of making your residence here permanent or indefinite”. As a result we would not qualify for the $500 child tax credit, because she will no longer be a qualifying child.
Has anyone else considered this issue for their kids? It even appears that it may apply to kids going to school in-state. For example, in California, you must register to vote at the location of your domicile (http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC§ionNum=349) and if that is the school address, it would seem to imply that your absences from home to attend college are no longer temporary and so your kid would no longer be a qualifying child.
I hope someone has answer to this. 1 contributing factor to D2s choice of school was picking a state other than our home state of Utah were her more liberal vote would count for something. After reading tax documents I counted D1 in Baltimore (hopkins) as a dependent( that D is completely uninterested on politics and wouldn’t even register to vote)
DD’s decision to register at college was the same…She felt her vote would “matter” more in a swing state. Didn’t think at all about the tax implications…
Yes, but… if the child has declared their residency in another state, then they are claiming that they do not live with you… (they may still be dependent on you even if they do not live with you, but that wouldn’t qualify for the credit)
@tutumom2001 The critical word in that exceptions paragraph is the time at school must be a temporary absence. By registering to vote, as per the language in Utah’s voter registration FAQ (https://voteinfo.utah.gov/), you must “have the intention of making your residence here permanent or indefinite”. And similarly in California, you must register to vote at the place to which the “person has the intention of returning”. Its not a temporary absence from the parents’ home if the kid has declared their intention to reside elsewhere.
PS. My son attempted to register and vote in the state where he is in college, but the authorities there decided that he was not in fact a resident and thus was not eligible to vote there…
Wonder if this is a state by state thing? IN allows college student to vote at school. The only document she needed to show was her school ID. There was no language (that I know of) about planning to reside their permanently. People, not necessarily just college students, do move all the time.
Varies state by state. In Boston where my daughter went to college - they actively pursued college students registering to vote. The MA law is interesting -
Status as a Dependent on Your Parents’ Taxes
Being registered to vote at a different address from your parents does not prevent them from claiming you as a dependent on their taxes
Registering to vote in Massachusetts makes you a resident for the purposes of your driver’s license and vehicle registration. If you drive your vehicle in Massachusetts, you have 30 days from when you register to vote to register your vehicle and get a Massachusetts driver’s license
Students needs to keep all of these things in mind when they decide to register at school - will it effect taxes, residency, driver’s license, etc.
@momofsenior1 Indiana does allow students to vote at school: “the intent of where students plan to return after attending college, or during summer and winter breaks, is not to be factored into the decision to approve their registration. They may register at school, if they so choose.” (see https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2626.htm)
But you still need to be a resident of Indiana to have the right to vote there (see https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2403.htm).
So it would seem an in-state student can vote wherever they choose, without implicating their temporary absence from home. But an out-of-state student would be declaring residency of Indiana (“Residency is established by registering to vote, enrolling a child in school, paying taxes, or living in the state for 183 days without a residence in another state” see https://faqs.in.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115005048687-What-are-the-residency-requirements-for-Indiana-), which would imply that the time during which they are registered in Indiana should not be counted as a temporary absence from their home state (and carries with it obligations for the student to file resident taxes in Indiana, change their drivers license etc.).
What state was this? This is contrary to case law, up to and including decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Actions taken by individual citizens determine in which state they have legal residency; it’s not left to the whim of state authorities. Students who have come to a state from another state in order to attend school should be free to register to vote in the new state, as long as they satisfy all the legal requirements. It’s incumbent upon the student to understand and comply with the requirements, and to also recognize the implications of changing legal residency, which can extend beyond voting rights and motor vehicle laws.
There’s a little more too this than the dependent credit. There’s the issue of state income tax. If I establish tax residency in order to vote, I can also stop filing as a non-resident or part year resident in my former home state. I go from CA (high state income taxes) to SD (NO state income taxes), I may end up ahead.
I think the point was that he somehow had not satisfied all of the requirements (it wasn’t an arbitrary decision on the part of the authorities). Thinking back on it, my recollection is that he was sent a form by the City Hall saying they needed this, that, and/or the other thing as proof of his residency in order to process his registration, and when he showed it to me, I said well you’ll have to get a new driver’s license, etc., etc., and at that point he decided that he didn’t actually want to do that, and so instead requested an absentee ballot from his/our “home” city…
Some places have been trying to discourage college students from voting, commonly because those currently in power in the government feel that college students are more likely to vote against them or their parties/allies. Sometimes, these methods include voter ID laws that exclude the kinds of IDs that college students are most likely to have.
@ucbalumnus living in a northeastern college town, I am familiar with the issues around out-of-state college students voting locally… I think we’ve had some incidents in our town similar to the Bates/Lewiston example you cited, and also cases here similar to what my son experienced in his college town.
And my daughter’s experience is the complete opposite in Boston. Elizabeth Warren staff physically on campus very actively helping college students to register locally. It is interesting when you have a city like Boston with over 150,000 college students, if they were all to register and vote this transient population could significantly effect local politics.
There were big voter registration drives at my daughter’s campus in IN too. Once registered, there were early voting polling places open on campus for a few weeks leading up to the election. Lines were out the door. No information given to students even hinted that there would be residency implications or driver’s license/car registration requirements. Frankly I’m a bit irritated now that we’re reading the IN laws. We would have her register to vote back in our home state for the next election before we would have her pay yet again for a new license and registration fees (we moved states just before she started at college.). Plus the car is ours, in our name, and insured in our state. She hasn’t taken it to school yet so it is not an issue yet…