Moving from Texas

Where Texans go is not one story.

• California received about 38,700 in 2023 and Florida about 37,800, followed by Colorado at about 32,200 and Oklahoma at about 31,500, then Georgia at about 20,900 and New York at about 19,000.
• Several of those routes run hard in both directions: California sent about 94,000 people the other way in the same year, and Florida about 50,500.

The tax picture does not travel with you evenly.

• There is no individual income tax here, which means most destination states will start withholding something from your paycheck that Texas never did.
• Property tax runs the opposite way: the Tax Foundation puts the effective rate on owner-occupied housing at 1.40 percent, which is high, so a move to a lower-rate state can offset part of the income tax you pick up.
• Work the two together rather than looking at either alone.

There is no final state income tax return

Texas does not tax individual income, so leaving creates no part-year return and no final filing here. This is not a policy that could quietly change next session either: voters added Article VIII, Section 24-a to the state constitution in 2019, and it says the legislature may not impose a tax on the net incomes of individuals, including an individual's share of partnership and unincorporated association income.

Tell the chief appraiser your homestead exemption has ended

The exemption stays on the roll until somebody takes it off, and the duty to report is yours. Form 50-114 states it plainly: the property owner must notify the chief appraiser in writing before May 1 of the year after the right to the exemption ends. Send that notice to the appraisal district in the county where the property is located once the home stops being your principal residence.

File a Vehicle Transfer Notification if you sell the car instead of taking it

A vehicle has to be titled in the buyer's name within 30 days of the sale, and until that happens the record still points at you. File the transfer notification within 30 days and you cannot be held responsible for parking tickets or toll violations the buyer racks up. This matters most when you trade the car to a dealer, because a dealer is not required to title it in the dealership name and the vehicle can sit in your name for months.

Register in your new state instead of renewing in Texas

Once you are a resident somewhere else, that state expects the vehicle registered there, and keeping the Texas registration renewed does not satisfy its rules. Texas itself no longer requires a safety inspection to renew a non-commercial vehicle, but if the car is registered in one of the 17 emissions counties a passing emissions inspection is still required before renewal, which is hard to arrange from another state.

Settle the property tax bill on the timeline, not on the closing date

Taxing units start mailing bills in October and payment is due on receipt. In most cases the deadline is January 31, and anything unpaid on February 1 is delinquent with penalty and interest attached. A unit has to give you at least 21 days to pay after mailing the original bill, so a bill that goes out after January 10 pushes the delinquency date later. If you still own property here after the move, make sure the bill follows you to the new address.