mail forwarding question

[lab_nomad]

I've decided for the time being to just stick with having a Virginia residency. I'll be putting my house on the market soon. I don't want to bother with changing my domicile, so I'll just get a mail fowarding address in Virginia, so I can keep my license and car registration as is, and I'll think about changing my domicile later on.

I was searching online for a mail forwarding business in Virginia, but all the ones I was able to find were national companies. They seemed to have relatively higher rates than what I was expecting. Are these national companies legit? They offered multiple cities as possible addresses in the state.

 

[MrNoodly]

The forwarder doesn't have to be in the same state as your domicile. It's common to have a mailing address that's different from your domicile.

(By the way, I lived my first 16 years in Virginia.)

 

[lab_nomad]

But if I sell my house, I won’t have a Virginia address. I know you can have multiple residences, but only one domicile, but if I don’t have an address in the domicile state, that doesn’t make sense.

 

[MrNoodly]

If you don't tell the DMV and insurance company you don't live there anymore, would they know? You have to document domicile when you want to establish yourself in a new location, but do they make you provide proof when you want to renew things with the address they already have on file?

 

[lab_nomad]

Well, I guess they wouldn't. The only negative thing is that some mail may still go to the house, and the new owner would be annoyed with it. Heck, I've lived their over 3 years, and I still get the previous owner's mail (junk mail, mostly).

But that brings me back to my original question. Are these nationwide companies that offer multiple addresses legit?

So, would I just sign up with them, and then fill out a change of address card with the USPS, then just say nothing to the DMV and other places? I pay personal property tax on my van through the county as well.

I don't know how important it is to change my domicile just yet. I could work in several states within one year. If I'm remembering right, I think I didn't pay Virginia anything for the money I made in other states, so it's not dire.

 

[urbankid12]

I've decided for the time being to just stick with having a Virginia residency. I'll be putting my house on the market soon. I don't want to bother with changing my domicile, so I'll just get a mail fowarding address in Virginia, so I can keep my license and car registration as is, and I'll think about changing my domicile later on.

I was searching online for a mail forwarding business in Virginia, but all the ones I was able to find were national companies. They seemed to have relatively higher rates than what I was expecting. Are these national companies legit? They offered multiple cities as possible addresses in the state.

A trick that I learned was as followed.

I found a national mailbox service company  iPostal1  if I remember correctly.  From there they list each state they have "locations" well if you see a location that you might like then google maps the address and more often or not it's a local ma and pa store that offers FedEx/Kinkos services.  You can take a look at the street maps to see what the business name is and then see if they have a website and see what services they offer directly.

I learned this the hard way.  I registered directly with the company.  When in fact they offered better prices on services to anybody who happened to walk into the location and signed up directly with them.  Or you could see if you could sign up over the phone or online depending on the location.

The service I had cost me a monthly rate and then charged me for each item received and it was annoying getting charged for picking up my spam mailings.  

Most of those "national chains" just have agreements with local shops but might offer better online services than the local shops too, plus better rates to transfer mail or such.

Plus the post office I think only will forward your mail free for one year.  After that I think they then want you to PAY to extend those forwarding services.  
I would suggest you reconsider...  Why not change your residency now to a state that has no income taxes? If the decrease in taxes easily outweighs the costs to change your registration it could be a much easier decision to make.

 

[wayne49]

Be aware that states that do not tax income make it up in other ways, such as a higher sales tax rate and more expensive title and registration fees. Nevada is one of those states.

 

[jacqueg]

That's true. 

You're going to pay a roughly equal portion of your income in taxes and fees, no matter where you live. It just costs a certain amount of money to run a modern government. 

My legal residence is in Washington, where I pay no personal income tax. I have no property tax, because I have no property. I like buying more expensive items in Oregon, because they have no sales tax. (Although be careful here - there is some kind of agreement between the states, where if I bought, say, a new car in Oregon, I would still owe Washington taxes.) OTOH, licensing and all government fees are noticeably higher in Washington than Oregon.

So just choose the state where, overall, the tax scheme is most favorable to you.

 

[Sara in a Prius]

Interesting – from my own experience, Oregon has very high fees. My car registration is $260 or so for 2 years (state + county). Had a BIL move up from CA and was astounded at the fees. As you said, we have no sales tax and gotta get the $$ from somewhere...

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Be aware that states that do not tax income make it up in other ways, such as a higher sales tax rate and more expensive title and registration fees. Nevada is one of those states.

Some states are better at managing tax money than others and states provide a different mix of services, so the total tax burden between states is not equal.

 

[frater secessus]

The service I had cost me a monthly rate and then charged me for each item received and it was annoying getting charged for picking up my spam mailings

To clarify: you can discard iPostal1 spam mailings for free from the web or app interface.

 

[urbankid12]

That wasn't my experience I had the request to shred option but it was never fulfilled. I had to select picked up for each item. I tried to group them together once and ended up spending like 30 bucks on that request. It really was an expensive service that didn't have a good interface via the app at least. It might have been my local provider since they specifically had mentioned to me it was 2 years since they had anyone that used the iPostal 1 box. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it, however it shoulds like you had a better experience than I had. Glad so.

 

[frater secessus]

That wasn't my experience I had the request to shred option but it was never fulfilled

Shred is dfferent than discard:

It's been there since 2018 at least. Dunno before that.

didn't have a good interface via the app at leas

The app was terrible but they reworked it this year and now it is more usable.

I think there are likely better forwarders but so far this works ok for me. I receive very little physical mail, and have them scan what does come in.