Moving from North Carolina

Most people who leave go somewhere close.

• Census ACS 2023 flows put South Carolina first at about 28,100, then Florida at about 25,300, Virginia at about 23,200, and Georgia at about 17,300.
• Texas (about 10,800) and Colorado (about 10,400) lead the longer moves.
• Every one of the top four is a two-way corridor that runs in North Carolina's favor: South Carolina sent about 31,400 people the other way in the same year, Virginia about 25,600, Georgia about 23,500, and Florida about 39,900.

North Carolina sits close to the national average on cost, so where you go decides whether leaving costs you.

• The MERIC cost of living index for the first quarter of 2026 put it at 96.6, 26th in the country, with housing at 91.7.
• The Tax Foundation puts the effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing at 0.66 percent.
• Income tax is a flat 3.99 percent for tax years after 2025, and the Department of Revenue notes that further rate changes may apply from 2027 under the rate reduction triggers in Session Law 2023-134.
• Compare that flat rate against your destination's brackets at your own income rather than against its top rate.

Turn in the plate before you cancel the insurance

Once you have a permanent residence in another state and are licensed there, you must surrender your North Carolina license plate and driver license to the DMV. Plates can go back at any license plate agency or by mail to NCDMV Vehicle Registration Section, Renewal Title & Plate Unit, 3148 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27697-3148, and receipts are provided on request, so ask for one. Do not cancel the auto policy first. State law requires continuous coverage on every registered vehicle, and cancelling before the plate is returned brings a fine. The penalty and restoration fee are waived if you send the DMV a copy of your new registration showing the car was registered in the new state within 30 days of the policy ending, and either return the plate or file form MVR-18A for one that was lost, stolen, or destroyed.

Claim back the unused vehicle property tax

Vehicle property tax is paid a year at a time with the registration, so leaving partway through usually means you have paid for months you will not use. If you move away, register the vehicle in another jurisdiction, and surrender the North Carolina plates, you can apply to the county tax collector for a refund covering the full calendar months left in the vehicle's tax year after the surrender date. The application must be made within one year of surrendering the plates and has to include the DMV receipt accepting them, which is another reason to ask for that receipt.

File Form D-400 with Schedule PN for the year you move

Moving out and becoming a resident of another state during the year makes you a part-year resident. If you received income while you lived here and your total gross income for the year exceeds the amount in the filing requirements chart for your filing status, you must file Form D-400. Attach Schedule PN, the part-year and nonresident schedule, which works out the percentage of your income from all sources that is subject to North Carolina tax. The state rate is a flat 3.99 percent for tax years after 2025.

Keeping the house as a rental keeps you filing

The filing obligation does not end with the move if income keeps coming from here. A nonresident who receives income attributable to real or tangible property in North Carolina, or from a business, trade, profession, or occupation carried on here, must file Form D-400 in any year their gross income from all sources meets the threshold in the filing requirements chart. Rent from a house you kept counts, so plan on a nonresident return each year it is let.