MsHuggys - 8:24 pm on Jun 12, 2011 (gmt 0)

Tangor, I'm talking about six month residency per year via that cute business class apartment with pool. It's absolutely legal in all 50 states. You pay your state income tax, where applicable, based on where you lived for six months and a day.

Many of us in this country have the flexibility to move about at will. For a year I was on the road with this business, staying in beach condos for months at a time. I still owned a home, but didn't spend a day in it for a year. Since the state my home was in didn't have a state income tax, it didn't matter, tax wise. Then, the state I was traveling within also didn't have a state income tax.

It is cheaper to own a nice home in a modern, progressive, educated thriving, town in Arkansas than it is in Las Vegas. Home ownership is not the measuring stick by which residency is measured. Since Las Vegas is pro-business, it's cheaper to rent a nice, business class apt than it is in Arkansas. It's a matter of taking advantage of what both states excel in.

Technically, the home office in that Vegas apt will suffice as a business location. I've had a home office for ten years and never had an office open to the public.

A shared office is just another write-off. Since the shared office has ala carte hardware, services and personnel available the home office might not have, it's justifiable for home office business owners. If you do need a meet-up, the shared office is where you want it to take place.

In fact, Nevada, at the corporation level, has an business set-up option that specifically gives the option of having a home office as the primary location for the corporation.

The problem people have is thinking of a corporation as something like IBM. In Nevada, one person can form a corporation. One person who makes all their money online doesn't need a towering office complex. All they need is . . . a home office. Nevada is hip to that fact, very savvy in understanding the needs of today's business owner.

Here, I can leave on Thursday morning come back on Sunday night for $49 one way to Vegas and do that every week, spending 3.5-4.0 days a week in Vegas. At the end of the year, I've been there more than half the year. Or, I could spend the entire winter there, while it's coolest, and half weeks for six months. It's called split residency and there is nothing illegal about it.

Is it a tax dodge? Sure, it can be if you choose the right two states. It is a legal tax dodge? I won't give you tax advice, I'm not qualified to do that. I find no law that says I can't own a home in one state, rent in another, equally split my time between the two and run the business from two states, with the choice to decide which state is the primary location. I mean, this is America here, at least today anyway.