February 10, 2019. Madison, Mississippi. Maryland.

I did not know this but it is true. Maryland makes sure you are out of the state at least 6 months of the year if you are registered as your legal residence in another state and you are not paying Maryland income taxes. My friend is no longer working full time but her children and grandchildren live in Maryland so she wants to keep a home there. But she must track the number of days she is living in Maryland very carefully so she can prove to the officials of where she slept every night away from Maryland. She has a computer program that tracks how many days she is in the state so she will not go over her quota. Her legal residence of Florida does not care a bit but Maryland is on her case. The last Governor raised every tax possible in the state. He raised the tax for everything imaginable: for the cost of a drivers license, the income tax, the cost for any professional license, property tax. For a time, he actually taxed the water falling on your roof. Of course, people started to move away so the officials realized that people had moved to Florida, but commuted each week back to Maryland to work, so the state made some rules. And they enforce them. Who knew? If you buy a house in Canada, you are welcome to live in that house for 180 days of any year. If you wish to stay longer, you must apply to become a landed residence. Several of the folks around Gull Bay in Nova Scotia got in trouble because they exceeded their number of days. One lady thought it was days in a row. Another family paid no attention. Both folks eventually obtained their papers but it was costly and time consuming. But they should have known better. Canada is a different country. But I have never known of a state make requirements. Maybe other high tax states have similar rules to Maryland but I had never heard of it before now. Lots of things I do not know. And this rule in Maryland is one of them.