If you're currently a New York City taxpayer, we don't see any way that registering to vote at your country home can increase any of your taxes: they're already as  high as can be in this state!  In fact, in the long run and depending on your particular circumstances, changing your voter registration to a lower-tax area could actually wind up being a factor that helps you a little, tax-wise.

Residents of New York City pay a little more in state/city income taxes than other New Yorkers.  Since there is no county income tax in New York State, outside of New York City, if some day you stopped being a New York City resident for tax purposes, your state/city income tax rate would fall.

New York City will consider you a resident for state tax income purposes if your primary residence (your domicile in tax-speak) is in the City.  In addition, even if your domicile is elsewhere, New York will still tax you as a City resident as long as you keep a permanent place in the City and spend more than 183 days of the tax year there.

The tax authorities don't make it easy to change your domicile, however, even if you stay out of town more than half the year.  Voter registration is one factor they look at, but don’t expect them to give very much weight—they know how easy it is for dual residents to pick one place or the other to vote in!

New York State gives a small rebate to homeowners on local property taxes called STAR, and that rebate is based on primary residence.  Some people feel that they'd do better under STAR if their primary residence were at their country homes rather than in the City.   While voter registration is one factor in determining primary residence for STAR purposes, it's only one factor, and for most people it probably won't be enough, standing alone, to make the difference.

The bottom line is this: for both income tax and property tax purposes, it can't hurt you tax-wise to change your voter registration to an area with a lower tax rate, but don’t count on it necessarily helping, either, unless many other things in your life have changed as well.

 

Q: Is it ok for my voting residence be different from the address on my tax returns?

Absolutely. Both the tax law and the election law recognize that a person can have different residences for different legal purposes.
 

Q: Can my voter registration to the country affect me, tax wise?

We don’t see any way it can hurt. There are no extra county income taxes you’d be walking into, and your state and federal income taxes and property taxes will be unchanged.

Q: What about my STAR rebate?

The STAR program is described on this State website, which makes it clear that the exemption is based on the STAR definition of "primary residence," which in turn seems pretty well-defined to exclude seasonal, vacation and weekend homes.  Voting is a matter of choice for dual residents, but tax matters are not purely matters of individual choice.

Q: Well, then, can changing my voter registration to the country sooner rather than later actually help my tax situation?

It could be a factor that helps, but only if a lot of other things changed in your life as well.

You can’t even think about getting out of paying New York City income taxes, until you get to the point where you spend less than 183 days a year in the City. At that point, your voter registration is one of many factors to be considered in determining your “domicile” for tax purposes. Talk to your tax professional about your particular situation, but in our view, if it appears that the person changed his voter registration mainly to obtain a more favorable tax domicile, that factor will likely be accorded less weight than if he did it because he really wanted to vote there.

Some people believe that the STAR rebate is more favorable for people whose primary residence is not in the City, but, again, voter registration is only one factor.

Q: I own triple-tax-exempt municipal bonds. Will there be any kind of tax disadvantage to changing my voting residence?

No. Since your voter registration probably won’t change your residence for tax purposes, registering to vote in the country shouldn’t change the value to you of your municipal bonds. If you really move out of the City and are no longer paying City taxes, triple tax exempt bonds obviously lose one of their advantages.