Domus DayState tax residency guides2026 Edition · Every rule sourced

After the move

What a state can still ask about, and for how long

The window

The years that decide it

A move is over in a weekend. The question of whether it counted stays open for years — and it is settled long after the boxes are unpacked, by whatever record exists when someone asks.

Most writing about state residency stops at the moving date, because that is where the decision feels finished. It is not where the exposure ends. Every state below publishes how far back it can reach into a filed return, and the shortest of them is three years.

Nothing on this page is about doing anything differently. It is about what the state can still ask, and therefore what is worth still having.

Lookback

How far back each state reaches

The standard period runs from the date a return was filed. Where a state publishes a separate rule for a year with no return filed at all, that is stated too — and it is usually the more consequential of the two.

25 departure states · lookback as published
  • 3 years from the date the return was filed (Tax Law §683).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed, or where a false or fraudulent return was filed with intent to evade tax.

    Source
  • 4 years from the date the return was filed (R&TC §19057).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed or a fraudulent return was filed (R&TC §19087).

    Source
  • New JerseyDivision of Taxation

    3 years from the date the return was filed (N.J.S.A. 54A:9-4).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed or a false or fraudulent return was filed with intent to evade tax.

    Source
  • 3 years from the date the return was filed (35 ILCS 5/905).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed or a false and fraudulent return was filed with intent to evade.

    Source
  • 3 years from the later of filing or the due date (G.L. c.62C §26).

    No return filed: No time limit for false or fraudulent returns or failure to file.

    Source
  • 3 years from the date the return was filed (C.G.S. §12-733).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed or a false or fraudulent return was filed.

    Source
  • The department publishes no assessment window for personal income tax on its residency pages; its PA-40 instructions direct keeping books and records at least four years after filing as evidence of what was reported, with basis documentation kept indefinitely or at least four years after disposition.

    Source
  • OhioODT

    4 years from the later of the date the return was required to be filed or the date it was filed (ORC 5747.13).

    No return filed: No time limit for fraudulent returns, for failure to file, or for employer taxes withheld from employees and not remitted.

    Source
  • MichiganTreasury

    4 years from the later of the date set for filing the return or the date it was filed (MCL 205.27a).

    Source
  • 3½ years after the return is filed (Minn. Stat. 289A.38, subd. 1).

    No return filed: No time limit for a false or fraudulent return or where no return is filed.

    Source
  • MarylandComptroller

    3 years from the later of the date the return is filed or the date it is due (Tax-General §13-1101).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return is filed, a false return is filed with intent to evade, or the return is incomplete.

    Source
  • VirginiaVirginia Tax

    3 years after the return was filed (§58.1-1812).

    No return filed: Six years from the date the return was due where no return is filed.

    Source
  • The Department normally has three years in which to assess additional tax.

    No return filed: No time limit in the case of fraud or failure to file a return.

    Source
  • Assessment and refund periods track the federal periods plus one year — generally four years from the later of the due date or filing (C.R.S. §39-21-107, §39-21-108).

    No return filed: Tax may be assessed at any time where no return is filed or a false or fraudulent return is filed (C.R.S. §39-21-107(4)).

    Source
  • The DOR's record-retention guidance is keyed to the limitations period: generally three years from the date the return was filed, or two years from the date the tax was paid, whichever is later.

    No return filed: Property-basis records carry longer retention guidance — four years after a sale — and no limitations period runs on unfiled years.

    Source
  • 36 months from the date the return was filed or due, whichever is later (SC Code §12-54-85).

    No return filed: No time limit where no return was filed or where there is fraudulent intent to evade the tax.

    Source
  • Three years after the return was filed (§ 47-4301(a)).

    No return filed: No limitation — where no return is filed, tax may be assessed at any time.

    Source
  • A notice of deficiency is mailed within three years after the return was filed (§143.711).

    No return filed: Where no return is filed, or a false and fraudulent return is filed with intent to evade tax, a notice of deficiency may be mailed at any time.

    Source
  • AlabamaALDOR

    ALDOR states it has three years from the date a tax return is due or filed, whichever is later, to audit the return and assess additional tax, penalty, and interest.

    No return filed: The published time limits are extended where a return is not filed as required or a false or fraudulent return is filed.

    Source
  • Louisiana prescription for income tax runs three years from the thirty-first day of December of the year in which the tax became due.

    Source
  • Four years from the due date, the extended due date, or the date the tax was paid, whichever is later, under KRS 141.210 (auditing of returns and assessment of additional tax).

    Source
  • Three years from the date the return was filed or was required to be filed, whichever is later, under the Uniform Tax Procedure Code (68 O.S. § 223).

    Source
  • UtahTax Commission

    The Tax Commission may begin an audit of a Utah individual income tax return within three years of the later of the due date or the date filed.

    No return filed: There is no statute of limitations for auditing, assessing, and collecting the tax where no return has been filed.

    Source
  • IdahoTax Commission

    Three years from the later of the due date or the date the return was filed, under the Idaho Income Tax Act.

    No return filed: Where no return is filed, the Tax Commission may determine and assess the tax without the ordinary time limit.

    Source
  • The amount of tax due under a return may be determined by the department within three years after the return was filed, under 15-30-2605, MCA.

    No return filed: Where no return is filed as required, the department may audit and assess at any time; the same applies where a false or fraudulent return is filed with intent to evade the tax.

    Source
The record

What is worth still having

Each departure guide carries that state’s severance record — the dated actions an examiner weighs, each one paired with the document it produces. It is the same inventory whether it is read before a move or held after one; what changes is that afterwards, the documents either exist or they do not.

Those records print on their own, stamped with the state, the edition, and the date the rules were last checked, so the artifact still says what it is once it is off this site.

The two tests every state applies — the day count and the domicile question — are explained on the general key. The day count in particular is not a fact to read once: it is a count that runs for a whole tax year, and it is settled by where someone actually was, day by day.

Limits

What this page is not

It is not advice, and it is not a filing calendar. The periods above are what each state publishes about its own reach; how they apply to a particular return depends on facts a general page cannot see, and the statute linked beside each one governs.

Rules change. Every line here carries the date its record was last reviewed, and how that review works is written down.