Mobile Wisconsinites can establish residency in Florida or elsewhere – and minimize their tax bill – more rapidly than many believe

By Mike Nichols

Thanks partly to the fact Minnesota is the one state between the coasts with even higher individual income tax rates than Wisconsin, and the fact that Illinois is a general mess, Wisconsin had a net gain of slightly more than 500 people from other states in 2020.

Exclude those two neighbors and we lose about 10,000 people annually to everywhere else – many of them no doubt in love with our state but disdainful of our exceedingly high taxes. Far and away, most of them go to Florida, then Arizona and Texas. But we also lose lots of people to cooler places, such as Colorado or Washington, with lower or no individual income taxes.

More than one former Wisconsinite has told me over the years that to be considered a resident of another state – and be exempt from paying Wisconsin’s high taxes without completely abandoning your family and friends back home – you have to spend six months and a day there.

Turns out that’s not true.

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