Yes, in many cases. Moving abroad does not end a state filing obligation by itself. A state taxes you as a resident while you remain domiciled there, and domicile follows intent, not distance. California, New York, Virginia, New Mexico and South Carolina each apply a different test, and none lets time abroad settle the question alone.
| State | What makes you a resident | Day count that matters | Relief for a move abroad |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Domiciled in California, or present for other than a temporary or transitory purpose | 546 consecutive days abroad under an employment-related contract; 45 return days a year | Safe harbor, lost if intangible income exceeds $200,000 |
| New York | Domiciled in New York, or a permanent place of abode plus 184 days or more in the state | 450 days abroad within any 548 consecutive days; 90 days or fewer in New York | Group A (30 days or fewer) or Group B (the 548-day rule) |
| Virginia | Domiciled in Virginia, or a place of abode kept for more than 183 days | More than 183 days of abode makes an actual resident | None in the regulation — domicile must be abandoned and replaced |
| New Mexico | Domiciled in New Mexico, or physically present 185 days or more | 185 days or more in the state in the aggregate | None in the regulation — domicile must be abandoned and replaced |
| South Carolina | Domiciled in South Carolina | No minimum number of days in the state | None in the statute — domicile must be abandoned and replaced |
Do Americans abroad still pay state income tax?
Often, yes. A state’s claim rests on domicile, and domicile survives a move overseas until another one replaces it. California states the position plainly: residents of California are taxed on all income, including income from sources outside California. Virginia requires residents to file a return that includes income from all sources. Neither rule contains an exception for living overseas.
The five states below are grouped together because each one writes the test in its own words. Two of them offer a written route out for a long posting abroad. Three do not, and leave the whole question to domicile — which is the harder standard, because it turns on what a person intended rather than on what a calendar shows.
How does California’s 546-day safe harbor work?
California treats a California domiciliary who is outside the state under an employment-related contract as a nonresident, provided the absence runs for an uninterrupted period of at least 546 consecutive days. Return visits that do not exceed a total of 45 days during any taxable year covered by the contract are considered temporary and do not break the harbor.
Two things end it. The harbor does not apply where the individual has intangible income exceeding $200,000 in any taxable year during which the employment-related contract is in effect, or where the principal purpose of the absence from California is to avoid personal income tax. California defines a resident as someone present in the state for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, or domiciled in California but outside it for a temporary or transitory purpose.
What is New York’s 548-day rule?
New York lets a domiciliary be treated as a nonresident under what the state calls Group B: present in a foreign country for at least 450 days during any period of 548 consecutive days, 90 days or less in New York State during that 548-day period, and the same 90-day ceiling applied to a spouse or minor children at any New York permanent place of abode. The days in the part-year periods before and after the 548 days are limited by a proportional formula.
Group A is the shorter route: no permanent place of abode in New York State during the tax year, a permanent place of abode maintained outside New York for the entire tax year, and 30 days or less spent in the state. Separately, anyone who is not domiciled in New York is still a resident if they maintain a permanent place of abode in the state for substantially all of the taxable year and spend 184 days or more there.
What makes Virginia domicile so hard to shed?
Virginia keeps a domiciliary resident on its rolls until the individual moves to a new location with the bona fide intention of making a fixed and permanent home there. The regulation is blunt about what falls short: a simple declaration of intent to abandon domicile, or physical presence elsewhere, is insufficient to abrogate Virginia domicile. Actual presence in the state is not required for domiciliary status to continue.
Returning quickly carries a specific consequence. Where a person relocates outside Virginia and comes back within six months, that is prima facie evidence that no intent to abandon Virginia domicile existed. Virginia also runs a second, parallel test: an individual who is not domiciled in the Commonwealth but maintains a place of abode there for more than 183 days in the aggregate during the taxable year is an actual resident, even though legal domicile is retained elsewhere.
How do New Mexico and South Carolina differ?
New Mexico counts days and South Carolina does not. New Mexico treats a person as a full-year resident if domiciled in the state during all of the taxable year, or if physically present in the state for a total of 185 days or more in the aggregate during the taxable year, regardless of domicile. South Carolina has no equivalent line: its Department of Revenue states that, unlike some states, South Carolina has no minimum time that must be spent in the state to be presumed a South Carolina resident.
New Mexico defines domicile as the place where an individual has a true, fixed home and a permanent establishment to which the individual intends to return after an absence. A first-year resident reports income earned before moving into New Mexico as nonresident income, even where the 185-day count is met. South Carolina rests on one sentence of statute — a resident individual is an individual domiciled in this State — with the meaning of domicile supplied by case law rather than by the code.
Does the foreign earned income exclusion cover state tax?
The foreign earned income exclusion is a federal provision. It is claimed on Form 2555 and is worth up to $132,900 for tax year 2026, up from $130,000 for 2025, under Revenue Procedure 2025-32. It reduces income on a federal return. The state tests above are written separately, in state statute and state regulation, and California’s own guidance is that residents are taxed on all income, including income from sources outside California.
What the states ask you to prove
The burden sits with the person claiming the change. South Carolina puts it in one line: generally, the burden of showing a change of domicile is on the party asserting the change. A person can have only one domicile at a time, and keeps the prior one until a new one is established.
South Carolina sets out a four-part test for leaving: the individual must have abandoned the old South Carolina domicile with no intent to return, actually established a new permanent and fixed place of abode in another state or country, severed connections with South Carolina, and moved with the intention of residing in the new place for a permanent or indefinite time. The evidence it weighs falls into five groups.
- Property — the addresses on documents, where property is held, where vehicles are kept
- Employment and financial information — where work is performed, which returns are filed, where bank accounts sit
- Licenses and registrations — voter registration, driver’s license, vehicle registration
- Family — where a spouse and family live, and what domicile was claimed before
- Affiliations — civic ties, religious affiliation, and where professional services are taken
Those categories are South Carolina’s, but the shape of the enquiry is common to the domicile states. Where a state offers a written route out — California’s 546 days, New York’s 450-in-548 — the route is an arithmetic one, and it is the arithmetic that has to hold. Where no route is written, the record is what decides.
Sources
- California Franchise Tax Board — FTB Publication 1031, Guidelines for Determining Resident Status (2025) — https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2025/2025-1031-publication.pdf — checked 16 September 2026
- California Franchise Tax Board — Part-year resident and nonresident — https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/residency-status/part-year-and-nonresident.html — checked 16 September 2026
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance — Income tax definitions — https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/file/pit_definitions.htm — checked 16 September 2026
- New York Codes, Rules and Regulations — Title 20, section 105.20, Resident individual — https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/new-york/20-NYCRR-105.20 — checked 16 September 2026
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance — Instructions for Form IT-203, Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return (2025) — https://www.tax.ny.gov/forms/current-forms/it/it203i.htm — checked 16 September 2026
- Virginia Department of Taxation — Residency Status — https://www.tax.virginia.gov/residency-status — checked 16 September 2026
- Virginia Administrative Code — 23VAC10-110-30, Definitions — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title23/agency10/chapter110/section30/ — checked 16 September 2026
- New Mexico Administrative Code — 3.3.1.9 NMAC, Residency, under section 7-2-2 NMSA 1978 — https://www.srca.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/03.003.0001.pdf — checked 16 September 2026
- New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department — Personal Income Tax Information Overview — https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/individuals/personal-income-tax-information-overview/ — checked 16 September 2026
- South Carolina Department of Revenue — A Guide to Determining a Taxpayer’s Domicile for Income Tax Purposes — https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/Documents/Policy%20Manuals/Domicile%20Guide.pdf — checked 16 September 2026
- South Carolina Code of Laws — Title 12, Chapter 6, South Carolina Income Tax Act, section 12-6-30 — https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t12c006.php — checked 16 September 2026
- Internal Revenue Service — IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026 (Revenue Procedure 2025-32) — https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2026-including-amendments-from-the-one-big-beautiful-bill — checked 16 September 2026
Common questions
- Do I still have to file a California return if I move to Portugal?
- Possibly. California taxes residents on all income, including income from sources outside California, and a California domiciliary stays a resident while the absence is for a temporary or transitory purpose. The one written route out is the safe harbor: an uninterrupted period of at least 546 consecutive days outside California under an employment-related contract.
- What is California’s 546-day safe harbor?
- It treats a California domiciliary who is outside the state under an employment-related contract as a nonresident, provided the absence runs for an uninterrupted period of at least 546 consecutive days. Return visits totalling 45 days or fewer during any taxable year covered by the contract are considered temporary and do not break the harbor.
- Does the safe harbor apply if I retire abroad rather than take a job?
- No. The California safe harbor is written around an employment-related contract, so an absence not tied to one falls outside it. Without the harbor, a California domiciliary stays a resident until domicile itself changes, which takes abandonment of the prior domicile, a physical move, and an intent to remain demonstrated by actions.
- What happens if my investment income goes over $200,000 during the contract?
- The safe harbor stops applying. California withholds it where the individual has intangible income exceeding $200,000 in any taxable year during which the employment-related contract is in effect. It is also unavailable where the principal purpose of the absence from California is to avoid personal income tax.
- How many days can I spend in New York and still be a nonresident?
- Under New York’s Group B route, 90 days or less in New York State across a 548-day period, alongside at least 450 days present in a foreign country during those 548 consecutive days. Group A sets a tighter figure of 30 days or less in the state, with no New York permanent place of abode and one maintained abroad all year.
- Does my family staying in New York affect my own residency?
- It can. The Group B route requires that a spouse or minor children are not present at a New York permanent place of abode for more than 90 days during the 548-day period. That ceiling sits alongside the taxpayer’s own 90-day limit, so a family home kept in use in New York bears directly on the test.
- I am not domiciled in New York but I keep an apartment there. Am I a resident?
- You can be. New York treats a non-domiciliary as a resident where they maintain a permanent place of abode in the state for substantially all of the taxable year and spend 184 days or more there. That statutory residence test runs independently of domicile and of any time spent in a foreign country.
- Why is Virginia domicile described as hard to shed?
- Because the regulation sets a high bar. A Virginia domicile continues until the individual moves to a new location with the bona fide intention of making a fixed and permanent home there, and a simple declaration of intent, or physical presence elsewhere, is insufficient to abrogate it. Actual presence in Virginia is not required.
- What if I move abroad and come back to Virginia within six months?
- That return is prima facie evidence that no intent to abandon Virginia domicile existed. The six-month marker sits in the regulation itself, so a short spell overseas followed by a quick return counts against the claim that domicile moved. Virginia residents file a return that includes income from all sources.
- Can New Mexico tax me if I am not domiciled there?
- Yes. New Mexico treats an individual as a full-year resident where they are physically present in the state for a total of 185 days or more in the aggregate during the taxable year, regardless of domicile. A first-year resident reports income earned before the move into New Mexico as nonresident income.
- How few days in South Carolina are safe?
- There is no such number. The South Carolina Department of Revenue states that, unlike some states, South Carolina has no minimum time that must be spent in the state to be presumed a South Carolina resident. Residency there rests on domicile alone, and the burden of showing a change of domicile falls on the party asserting it.
A note on tax content
Tax content on this site is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. Rules for U.S. citizens abroad depend on individual circumstances, country of residence, income sources, account structures, and applicable treaties — always consult a qualified tax professional in the relevant jurisdiction before making decisions.
The information provided by US Expat is for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be treated as personalized tax, legal, immigration, investment, insurance, or financial advice. U.S. citizens abroad should consult qualified professionals who understand their specific facts and circumstances. US Expat is not a law firm, tax filing firm, or immigration law firm.
Rules and thresholds for U.S. citizens abroad change. Pages are reviewed periodically; confirm current details with a qualified professional before acting.
