Which apartment is my residence?

[TheRoland]

This question seems dangeriously like n00b content, but a quick search didn't find a useful answer.

So I may be in a situation where I'm living in two different apartments soon. I'd be paying rent for both of them. One is in a green town, the other red. Which is my residence for purposes of licensing? Which ever I decide? Where I spend >50% of my time?

EDIT: More searching appears to have found my answer. Feel free to chime in if you feel like it, anyways.

 

[Harleynut]

I asked that question to a friend that was a judge years ago when I was bouncing back and forth between Mass and NH. He looked into it and said that there was a case involving Hershey chocolate family that owned several homes. What he said was important was they had the intention to spend so much time at one location. If something happened and they didn't spend that amount of time it didn't change things. I guess that was an important case where there was lots of state income tax to be had.
I seem to remember George Bush returning to Tx to vote and we know he had a little place in DC at the time.
You may want to google it.
Now I didn't pay for that bit of legal advice and you know what they say about free legal advice.

 

[TheRoland]

That seems to be the consensus. This situation may not come to pass anyways, but it appears like, since both locations are in MA, it shouldn't end up being that complicated.

 

[theGringo]

What address will be on your driver's license? Your car insurance as place of principal garaging? Where will you be registered to vote?

 

[oldsoldier29]

What address will be on your driver's license? Your car insurance as place of principal garaging? Where will you be registered to vote?

Gringo is correct-you can only have one place of LEGAL residence-its where all your registered mail goes to. Where your bills, your taxes, and your license reflects as your answer.

 

[KMaurer]

Actually one can have different legal residences for different purposes. To manage that, however, requires real legal advice rather than the sort one gets on the Internet. The simplest thing to do is to register your car and register to vote in the green town and get that address on your drivers license. You can get mail at a dozen different mailing addresses without any real impact on anything.

Ken

 

[M1911]

The simplest thing to do is to register your car and register to vote in the green town and get that address on your drivers license.

This.

 

[TheRoland]

This.

In addition to car registration, voting, etc, I'd also be spending more of my time and intent to continue to reside in the green town, so it's not really a close call. Just wanted to make sure the answer wasn't "The town closes to Boston!" or some other nonsense. Thanks!

 

[Realtor MA]

Gringo is correct-you can only have one place of LEGAL residence-its where all your registered mail goes to. Where your bills, your taxes, and your license reflects as your answer.

What address will you use on your tax returns? That plays a big part. Don't mess with the IRS!!

 

[TheRoland]

What address will you use on your tax returns? That plays a big part. Don't mess with the IRS!!

Got it! I think all the official records will be for one address; I just didn't want to get caught by some esoteric common law concept.

 

[cb1]

The amount of time you spend there doesn't always matter. I went to college in Boston. When I lived in the dorms my driver's license, car insurance, tax returns, voter registration, etc all listed my parents' house back home. Technically I spent most of the calendar year in Boston but that was not considered to be my legal residence. You having two apartments is no different than someone owning a home here in MA and a vacation home in Florida.