How many days can you spend in Illinois before you’re a resident?

The rule in Illinois

Illinois defines a resident as someone in the state for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, or domiciled there but temporarily absent, decided on the facts. The old nine-month presumption was removed from the regulation. The remaining presumptions are claiming an Illinois homestead exemption and, for a prior-year resident, spending more days in Illinois than in any other state.

Because Illinois looks at the whole picture, the day count is still the first thing an auditor asks for. Spending most of the year in Illinois is hard to explain away; spending most of it elsewhere, with records to prove it, is the strongest evidence you have.

Source: ilga.gov

How long do you have to live in Illinois to be considered a resident?

There is no set number of days. Illinois treats you as a resident from the day it becomes your domicile, the place you intend to return to, and it judges that on the facts: your home, licence, registration, family and where you spend your time. Living there most of the year makes it hard to argue otherwise.

Illinois residency requirements for taxes

Illinois looks at domicile first, then at days. Domicile is where your permanent home is, judged on the facts below. There is no fixed day count, so the facts below decide.

• Where your permanent home is, and where you spend more of your nights
• Driver’s licence, vehicle registration, and voter registration
• Where your spouse, children, and pets live and go to school
• Where your doctor, dentist, accountant, and bank are
• Where the things you would not want to lose are kept
• Day counts, which are the one factor the state can verify independently

What counts as a day

In most states any part of a day spent in the state counts as a full day, including the day you arrive and the day you leave. Layovers and driving through can count too. A few states exempt time in transit or days spent in a hospital, but the safe assumption is that if you were there at any point, the day counts.

The count is per calendar year and resets on January 1. Days do not have to be consecutive.

How Illinois checks

The burden of proof is on you, not the state. In a residency audit the state asks for the records that show where you physically were, day by day:

• Mobile phone location and call records
• Credit and debit card transactions
• Flight itineraries, toll records, and parking receipts
• Calendar entries, social media posts, and photos with location data

Gaps in your records are usually resolved against you. A day you cannot place somewhere else is a day the state can argue you spent inside it.

Keep the proof automatically

Other states