West Virginia residency rules

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

Q: How many days can you spend in West Virginia before you’re a resident?

Anyone who has 184 or more days in West Virginia in a year and maintains a place to live there is a resident, even with a permanent home elsewhere. Stay at 183 days or fewer.

183 days. West Virginia treats you as a resident once you reach 184 or more days in the state in a year and keep a place to live there, even if your permanent home is somewhere else.

The rule in West Virginia

West Virginia treats you as a resident if you maintain a permanent place of abode in the state and spend more than 183 days of the tax year there in total. Any part of a day counts, except time spent solely boarding transport to leave or passing through in transit.

Two people can have the same permanent home in another state and get different answers, purely on days. Keeping the count below the line, and being able to prove it, is the entire game.

Source: code.wvlegislature.gov

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

Two ways. You become a West Virginia resident the day you make it your domicile, however few days you have spent there. Or, even with a permanent home elsewhere, you are treated as a resident once you reach 184 days in West Virginia in a single year while keeping a place to live there. The second route is the one that catches people by surprise.

West Virginia residency requirements for taxes

West Virginia looks at domicile first, then at days. Domicile is where your permanent home is, judged on the facts below. On top of that, the day-count rule above can make you a resident regardless of domicile.

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 West Virginia 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

Every day, counted. Every state, on record.

Whereabouts runs quietly in the background on your iPhone and logs which state you are in, day by day. You get a running day count for West Virginia and every other state, a timeline of every stay, and a one-tap CSV export for your accountant. Nothing leaves your phone.

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Other states

Alabamaseven months AlaskaNo income tax Arizonanine months Arkansassix months Californianine months Coloradosix months Connecticut184 days Delaware184 days District of Columbia183 days FloridaNo income tax Georgia183 days Hawaii201 days Idaho271 days IllinoisDomicile Indiana184 days Iowa184 days Kansassix months Kentucky184 days Louisianasix months Maine184 days Maryland183 days Massachusetts184 days Michigan183 days Minnesota183 days MississippiDomicile Missouri184 days MontanaDomicile Nebraska183 days NevadaNo income tax New HampshireNo income tax New Jersey184 days New Mexico185 days New York184 days North Carolina184 days North Dakotaseven months Ohio213 contact periods OklahomaDomicile Oregon201 days Pennsylvania184 days Rhode Island184 days South CarolinaDomicile South DakotaNo income tax TennesseeNo income tax TexasNo income tax Utah183 days Vermont184 days Virginia184 days WashingtonNo income tax WisconsinDomicile WyomingNo income tax

Whereabouts helps you keep records. It is not tax or legal advice, and residency rules change. Confirm the rule for your situation with a CPA or tax attorney before relying on it.