Expats giving up passports because they no longer want to pay taxes

New York - like many States starts by asking where an individual is domiciled.  So...where are you domiciled?

As in where I live now? Good ol' Redditch, England.

I doubt I would ever want to ditch my American passport. I don't like burning bridges, who knows what will happen in the future? And it's good to keep options open. However, as a Texan, I don't pay state taxes, and the possibility that I would ever earn more than the threshold or have more than $10,000 in the bank is probably slim to none, anyway. 

Similar situation with me, moved to my parents house in FL for a month before I moved (changing DL and registering to vote) so I wouldn't have to deal with any state tax potential issues.. and the thought of me earning over the threshold as an Early Years Practitioner is laughable!

Okay, this seems like the best place to ask this. I'm curious if I'll need to file an IL state tax return next year.

I found a topic on the official site titled "Who is an Illinois resident?" and this is what it said:

You are an Illinois resident if you were domiciled in Illinois for the entire year.  Your domicile is the place where you reside and the place where you intend to return after temporary absences.  Temporary absences may include duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, residence in a foreign country, out-of-state residence as a student, or out-of-state residence during the summer or winter.  If you are absent from Illinois for one year or more, we will presume you are a nonresident of Illinois.

I don't read law-ese very well. Does this mean I still have to file an IL return next year since they consider this a "temporary absence"?

I think your get-out clause is the last sentence.

If you are absent from Illinois for one year or more, we will presume you are a nonresident of Illinois.

That should mean that if you stay in Scotland for 1 year they no longer consider you a resident of IL and therefore do not need to file a state return.

You are indeed reading this correctly, however Illinois is a domicile based State and the State has been starting to enforce this quite a lot in the past 6 months.

Remember the words are "absent...for one year".  So owning a vacation home in Illinois would be a problem if you stay there, as might theoretically on a literal reading even visiting for a day in the year.

Current advice is therefore to sever connections to that State such as a drivers license, property, bank accounts etc so as to reduce visibility (seeing that they won't know if you visit mom for a day but would know if you keep in touch).

Is there a way to give up Illinois residency? I was able to fill out a form giving up my Ohio residency.

Is there a way to give up Illinois residency? I was able to fill out a form giving up my Ohio residency.

I emailed and asked that very question. They told me that I "had" to be a resident of a state if I was a US citizen. (I think whoever answers emails is sorely mistaken. If I had a child tomorrow it would be a US citizen but would be a resident of no state having never lived in the US.)

Yeah, a lot of those people don't get the concept of US citizens living abroad. 

I found this:
Individuals. The purpose of the general definition is to include in the category of individuals who are taxable on their entire net income, regardless of whether derived from sources within or without Illinois, all individuals who are physically present in Illinois enjoying the benefit of its government, except those individuals who are here temporarily, and to exclude from this category, all individuals, who, although domiciled in Illinois, are outside Illinois for other than temporary and transitory purposes, and, hence, do not obtain the benefit of Illinois government. If an individual acquires the status of a resident by virtue of being physically present in Illinois for other than temporary or transitory purposes, he remains a resident even though temporarily absent from Illinois. If, however, he leaves Illinois for other than temporary or transitory purposes, he thereupon ceases to be a resident. If an individual is domiciled in Illinois, he remains a resident unless he is outside Illinois for other than temporary or transitory purposes.

So it seems to be a question of intent. I think honestly if Illinois came after you for your vast sums of money you can point out that you are here on a settlement visa and intend on residing indefinitely outside the US.

So it seems to be a question of intent. I think honestly if Illinois came after you for your vast sums of money you can point out that you are here on a settlement visa and intend on residing indefinitely outside the US.

How did you know I keep hundreds of thousands of pounds under my mattress? Luckily you don't know where I live ... oh wait you do.

Anyway, thanks for that! I trolled Illinois websites earlier before work and got so annoyed about how difficult it is to find a straight answer. Why do they make it so difficult for people who live abroad?

Illinois bases its view of who is resident there for tax purposes on where that person is domiciled.  If you have abandoned a domicile in Illinois then that might imply you have acquired domicile in England & Wales -thus subjecting your worldwide income and gains to UK income tax and your worldwide estate to UK inheritance tax.

Or in this case, Scotland.

As in where I live now? Good ol' Redditch, England.

I would be very surprised to learn of anyone changing domicile as quickly as you say you have done.

Thanks to everyone for all your help. Nothing confuses my poor brain more than taxes and tax related things.

I would be very surprised to learn of anyone changing domicile as quickly as you say you have done.

I think the concept of domiciled is really confusing in general. Then you attempt to read state rules and its even more confusing.