<prompt> Human: Hi everyone. My wife and I are current California residents, but starting next March were planning on taking a year off from our normal life and traveling around the US and Europe. We will NOT be in California at all during that time. We own our home and are planning on renting it out during the year we are gone. I telecommute already, and will continue to telecommute and earn about 100K, which would be a bit less than 10K in California income tax. As you probably guessed from the title...Im exploring the possibility of changing our state of residence for the time were away...with hopes of avoiding that 10K hit. My wifes brother lives in Washington state, which has NO state income tax, so we could theoretically use his address. I checked the state of washington website about establishing residence and it lists several options including Uses a Washington address for federal or state taxes;. Am I missing anything, or is it really as simple as changing my address with my employer and while filing taxes to my wifes brothers address? We will actually be visiting him during the trip, so wed be spending more time in WA then we would in CA. I assume wed still end up being hit with CA income tax on the rental property our current primary residence, but if we can figure out how to save that 10K on my salary that would be SIGNIFICANT!Any advice? Is this completely illegal tax fraud? Anyone done anything similar? Thanks in advance!  <response>: Beware that according to law in California, you are considered a tax resident even if you leave the state for any length of time, as long as your absence is temporary and your plan is to return to California eventually to live long term.According to your description above, you will most likely continue to be considered a CA resident for tax purposes.E.g. from here :A resident is any individual who meets any of the following:- Present in California for other than a temporary or transitory purpose.- Domiciled in California, but outside California for a temporary or transitory purpose. See Meaning of Domicile on page 9Meaning of DomicileThe term domicile has a special legal definition that is not the same as residence. While many states consider domicile and residence to be the same, California makes a distinction and views them as two separate concepts, even though they may often overlap. For instance, you may be domiciled in California but not be a California resident or you may be domiciled in another state but be a California resident for income tax purposes.Domicile is defined for tax purposes as the place where you voluntarily establish yourself and family, not merely for a special or limited purpose, but with a present intention of making it your true, fixed, permanent home and principal establishment. It is the place where, whenever you are absent, you intend to return.Change of DomicileYou can have only one domicile at a time. Once you acquire a domicile, you retain that domicile until you acquire another. A change of domicile requires all of the following:- Abandonment of your prior domicile.- Physically moving to and residing in the new locality.- Intent to remain in the new locality permanently or indefinitely as demonstrated by your actions.Leaving CaliforniaAny individual who is a resident of California continues to be a resident when absent from the state for a temporary or transitory purposeSee also the section Guidelines for Determining Residency and the examples there - its too long to quote hereSo you should definitely consult a tax lawyer who specializes in this area for proper advice on how to best handle your situation - there are some more details like the safe harbor provision for employment related absence, etc. - I only quoted the key points.It is very likely that once you return back to CA after one or even several years, CA will come after you for back taxes, claiming you intended to return all along, and therefore never actually abandoned your CA domicile. 