Tax residency rules, audits, and the severance record (2026)
2026.1 Edition · Revised 2026-07-24 · DomusDay Research
Moving out of New York is easy. Stopping New York taxes is a different act, and it happens on paper: New York keeps treating you as a resident until the record shows otherwise, and the burden of showing otherwise is on the party asserting the change of domicile; intentions are weighed against unequivocal acts — clear and convincing evidence.
Two tests decide it. Cross 183 days with a New York abode still available and you are taxed as a resident regardless of where you claim to live — and any part of a day counts. Or keep the day count clean but leave the life-pattern evidence pointing at New York, and domicile does the same work. Everything on this page exists to answer one question: if DTF asks, does your record hold?
Under the convenience of the employer rule, a nonresident assigned to a New York office owes New York tax on days worked from home out of state — unless the home office meets the strict bona fide employer office test.
Source ↗One meeting or a single evening in the state counts a full day toward the 183-day statutory residency threshold. Only travel passing through New York and days confined for medical treatment are excluded.
Source ↗Tax Law §639 requires a departing resident to accrue income already earned to the resident period — a bonus or gain accrued before the move is New York-taxed even if paid afterward.
Source ↗The 10.3% and 10.9% top rates apply to taxable years beginning before January 1, 2028, while the bottom bracket falls to 3.9% in 2026 and 3.8% for 2027 through 2032.
Source ↗This is the test with a number in it, and the number is what an auditor can verify line by line. Keep any New York dwelling suitable for year-round use and spend more than 183 days in the state, and New York taxes all of your income — domicile arguments never enter into it. Any part of a day counts: a morning meeting, a connection through the city with a dinner on the ground, a single evening — each is a full day against the threshold.
A non-domiciliary who maintains a permanent place of abode and spends more than 183 days of the taxable year in New York is taxed as a resident on all income, regardless of domicile.
A residence the taxpayer maintains — owned or not — that is suitable for year-round use. The abode counts when maintained for substantially all of the tax year; Tax Bulletin TB-IT-690 states this generally means more than eleven months.
Selling the apartment is not the test, and neither is the new driver's license. New York presumes an established domicile continues until it is shown to have changed — clear and convincing evidence, with the burden on the party asserting the change of domicile; intentions are weighed against unequivocal acts. Examiners weigh 5 primary factors — home, active business involvement, time, items near and dear, family connections — and they weigh what you did, not what you intended. The pattern of an actual life somewhere else is the evidence; everything else is secondary.
A clean exit does not end every New York claim. These rules keep taxing specific situations after the move — each one is a way the state stays in your return.
AffectsRemote and hybrid employees of New York-based employers who move out of state but keep the job.
AffectsTaxpayers with deferred compensation, accrued bonuses, or income events near the move date.
AffectsDomiciliaries on extended foreign assignments.
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) runs a high-intensity residency program. The department runs a dedicated nonresident audit program with a 107-page published guideline document governing residency examinations. An examination is not an argument about intentions — it is a request for documents, and the request looks like this:
Every item on that list either exists in your records from the year of the move, or it does not. That is the whole game — and why the severance record below is the section that matters most.
An audit years from now is answered with documents generated in the months around the move. This is that inventory — grouped the way examiners think about a life, each item paired with the evidence it leaves behind.
The claimed change-of-domicile date receives the closest scrutiny in a residency audit. Income events near that date — bonuses, equity vesting, business sales — are examined for timing, and the §639 accrual rule reaches income accrued before the change even if received after it.
Auditors examine where the taxpayer holds a driver's license and when the New York license was surrendered or exchanged.
Source ↗States compare voter registration records in each state, including where the taxpayer actually voted after the move.
Source ↗Auditors review where vehicles are registered and insured, and when New York plates were surrendered.
Source ↗The home factor weighs what happened to the New York residence — sold, leased at market rates, or retained and available for use.
Source ↗Auditors compare the size, value, and use of the dwellings maintained in each state.
Source ↗Retaining any New York dwelling suitable for year-round use keeps the statutory residency test in play; the day count then controls.
Source ↗States evaluate where day-to-day banking activity occurs — branch usage, ATM patterns, and the address on accounts.
Auditors note the location of accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors engaged after the move.
States evaluate where primary care physicians, dentists, and specialists are located and where appointments actually occur.
Club memberships, religious affiliations, and civic involvement are weighed by where they are actually used, not just held.
The near-and-dear factor examines where items of sentimental or significant value — art, heirlooms, pets — are kept after the move.
Source ↗New York expects Form IT-203 for the change year, with income allocated to the resident and nonresident periods.
Source ↗Every rule on this page traces to one of these. When a blog and a statute disagree, the statute wins — start here.
How these are chosen, what the automated gates catch, and what this site deliberately does not do: how these guides are made →
The year of the move is filed on IT-203, with income split between the resident and nonresident periods — and that return is itself evidence: it states your change date on a signed document. Employers withhold New York tax on wages of nonresidents for services performed in New York, with allocation for services performed partly in the state (Publication NYS-50).
More than 183 days in the tax year, if a permanent place of abode is also maintained. Any part of a day in the state counts as a full day, with narrow exceptions for pass-through travel and medical confinement.
The taxpayer asserting the change, by clear and convincing evidence. The audit guidelines weigh five primary factors: home, active business involvement, time, items near and dear, and family connections.
Not necessarily. Under the convenience of the employer rule, days worked remotely for a New York-assigned position remain New York workdays unless the home office qualifies as a bona fide employer office.
Day-by-day calendars, credit card and bank statements, cell phone records, leases and utility bills, school records, and license and registration histories — the published audit guidelines list the categories examiners review.
Form IT-203, the combined nonresident and part-year resident return, with income allocated between the resident and nonresident periods.
A New York driver license within 30 days of becoming a resident, out-of-state vehicle registration within 30 days, voter registration through the State Board of Elections, and — for homeowners — a one-time STAR credit registration with the Tax Department.
Yes. New York City residents pay a city income tax with a top rate of 3.876% on top of the state tax, reported on the state return (Form IT-201). City residency is determined separately from state residency; a mid-year change of city resident status goes on Form IT-360.1.
Form IT-203, the combined nonresident and part-year resident return, with income allocated between the nonresident and resident periods — the same form leavers file, applied from the other direction.
2026.1 Edition · Revised 2026-07-24 · DomusDay Research