Multi-state tax · New Jersey to Florida
For anyone moving from New Jersey to Florida, taxes are owed to New Jersey only on New Jersey-source income once residency ends.
Florida taxes no personal income, while New Jersey’s rates run up to 10.75%. In the year you move, New Jersey taxes everything you earn before your move date. After that date, New Jersey-source income includes pay for days worked in New Jersey and gain on New Jersey real estate.
Updated · Sources
New Jersey and Florida income tax
- 0%
- is the state income tax on everything you earn as a Florida resident, wages and gains alike.
- 10.75%
- is New Jersey’s top rate, charged on taxable income over $1 million. The bracket below it, from $500,000, is 8.97%.
- 2%
- of the sale price is the least a nonresident prepays at closing on New Jersey real estate. Exemptions include a qualifying main home.
New Jersey’s rates come from its 2025 tax rate schedules.
When does New Jersey stop taxing you as a resident?
New Jersey residency ends on the day your domicile moves to Florida, unless the 183-day test keeps you a resident.
Your domicile has moved to Florida
Your domicile is your one permanent home. It changes only when you move to Florida for good, intending to abandon New Jersey as your home. Even a long stay in Florida keeps New Jersey as your domicile if you plan to return.
No more than 183 days in New Jersey while you keep a home there
Even with a Florida domicile, you can still be a New Jersey resident. That happens if you keep a permanent home in New Jersey and spend more than 183 days there. A home kept only for vacations is not a permanent home.
Your records point to Florida
New Jersey looks at your records to decide where your domicile is. They include where you vote, your driver license and car registration, your federal return address and your bank accounts. Florida also lets you file a sworn declaration of domicile with the clerk of the circuit court.
A Florida resident’s $200,000 gain on an $800,000 New Jersey rental means $21,500 due at closing.
New Jersey collects this payment from sellers who live elsewhere, as a prepayment of its income tax.
Rental, $200,000 gain
$21,500
10.75% of the gain is more than 2% of the price, so the gain sets the payment.
Rental, $50,000 gain
$16,000
The 2% minimum is more than 10.75% of this gain, so it applies. Your NJ-1040NR refunds whatever exceeds the tax you owe.
Your former main home
$0
Box 2 of Form GIT/REP-3 exempts a principal residence that qualifies under Section 121.
New Jersey sets the payment at 10.75%, its top rate, times your federal gain, with a 2% floor unless an exemption applies. Here 2% × $800,000 = $16,000, and 10.75% of each gain gives $21,500 or $5,375. You claim the payment on Form NJ-1040NR (line 51 on the 2025 form), where the actual tax on the gain is figured.
After you move to Florida, New Jersey taxes little beyond your New Jersey workdays and real estate.
| Before you move | After you move | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary and bonuses | All of it A credit offsets another state’s tax on the same pay | Pay for New Jersey workdays |
| Bank interest | Taxed | Not taxed |
| Gain on New Jersey real estate | Taxed | Taxed With a payment at closing |
| What sets the rate | Your income as a resident | All your income after the move Tax on it is then cut to New Jersey’s share |
| Return | NJ-1040 | NJ-1040NR Only with New Jersey income |
Where New Jersey tax outlasts the move.
The filing test counts your whole year
Whether you must file Form NJ-1040 depends on your income for the whole year, including your months in Florida. Your exemptions and deductions are prorated by your months as a resident. A month counts if you lived in New Jersey for 15 days or more of it.
Closing near your move date
New Jersey’s own guidance differs on whether a seller who moves out right after closing counts as a resident at closing. The timing matters most for a rental or second home, since a qualifying main home owes no payment at closing either way. Ask a CPA before you set a closing date.
Gain above the home-sale exclusion
The main-home exemption on Form GIT/REP-3 removes only the payment at closing. Gain above the Section 121 exclusion is still taxed on your NJ-1040NR. Federally, the exclusion is $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 on a joint return that qualifies. Gain above it can also bring the 3.8% net investment income tax.
Seller’s fees on top of the tax
New Jersey charges the seller a Realty Transfer Fee on most sales of real estate. A home sold for over $1 million also owes a Graduated Percent Fee. It starts at 1% of the whole price and reaches 3.5% above $3.5 million. A 2025 law moved that fee from buyers to sellers.
A New York job still counts
If you commuted from New Jersey to a New York office and keep that job, New York can keep taxing its pay. You then file New York’s Form IT-203 each year, alongside any New Jersey return.
A property tax break in both states
Claim a property tax break that requires permanent residency in one state only. New Jersey treats a claim for its property tax relief as a sign your domicile is still New Jersey. Florida denies its homestead exemption to anyone receiving or claiming such a break in another state.
File every New Jersey return, and claim every payment, as you leave.
Valim’s CPAs prepare the New Jersey returns people owe after moving to Florida, from the year they leave to a later home sale.
- We file an NJ-1040 for your New Jersey months with your federal return, and an NJ-1040NR when New Jersey income continues.
- After you sell New Jersey property, we claim the closing payment on your NJ-1040NR.
- We plan a home sale or large bonus around your move date before you commit to either.
- We set estimated payments for the New Jersey income that remains.
- We answer any New Jersey notice on a return we prepared, even one that disputes your move date, within your fee.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
New Jersey to Florida tax questions.
Is it worth moving from New Jersey to Florida?
On income tax, yes: Florida charges none, while New Jersey’s rates reach 8.97% from $500,000 of taxable income and 10.75% above $1 million. Florida levies no estate or inheritance tax, and its constitution bars one beyond any federal credit. New Jersey’s estate tax ended for deaths from January 1, 2018, but its inheritance tax remains, with spouses, children and parents exempt. You gain once your domicile is in Florida and New Jersey’s 183-day test no longer applies. A later sale of New Jersey real estate is still New Jersey income.
Do you get taxed for moving out of New Jersey?
No, leaving New Jersey triggers no tax by itself. What people call New Jersey’s exit tax is a prepayment of income tax when a nonresident sells New Jersey real estate. The seller pays 10.75% of the gain or 2% of the price, whichever is more, and claims it on Form NJ-1040NR. The county will not record the deed without a GIT/REP form and the payment. A main home that qualifies under Section 121 is exempt, as are a few other transfers, such as a like-kind exchange.
Is it worth moving to Florida for tax purposes?
Moving to Florida pays off for income tax, because Florida levies no income tax on its residents. Unlike Washington, it taxes no capital gains, and it ended its annual tax on stocks and bonds in 2007. A home you own on January 1 and make your permanent residence can get the homestead exemption, if you apply by March 1. It exempts up to $25,000 of assessed value from all property taxes. A second exemption, set at $25,000 and indexed to inflation from 2025, covers assessed value above $50,000 for taxes other than school taxes.
If I move to Florida, will I still have to pay NY taxes?
Yes, if you still have New York-source income, such as pay from a job whose office is in New York. Days you work in New York stay taxable there after the move. Under its convenience of the employer rule, home days you work in Florida by choice can count as New York days. Stock options tied to your New York work can also stay New York income. Anyone who lived in New York must first end their New York residency.
Does New Jersey tax my pay if I work for a New Jersey employer from Florida?
New Jersey taxes only the pay for days you work in New Jersey. It applies its convenience of the employer rule only to residents of states with a similar rule, and Florida has none. Days you work from home in Florida are therefore not New Jersey days. Form NJ-1040NR splits your pay by the share of your workdays spent in New Jersey.
Which New Jersey returns do I file in the year I move to Florida?
You file up to two New Jersey returns, because New Jersey has no part-year resident return. Form NJ-1040 covers your months as a resident and reports only the income you earned while living there. Form NJ-1040NR follows only if you had New Jersey-source income after the move, such as pay for New Jersey workdays. Nothing is filed with Florida, which has no personal income tax. Massachusetts does have a part-year return, so leaving it takes one Form 1-NR/PY for the move year.
Sources
- Fla. Const. art. VII, § 5, Estate, inheritance and income taxes
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, GIT-6, Part-Year Residents and Nonresidents (May 2026)
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, 2025 NJ-1040 instructions
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, 2025 NJ-1040NR instructions
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, TB-57(R), Estimated Gross Income Tax Payment Requirements on Sales of New Jersey Real Property by Nonresidents (June 15, 2026)
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, Form GIT/REP-3 (seller’s residency certification or exemption)
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, Realty Transfer Fee
- New Jersey Division of Taxation, Inheritance tax rates
- Fla. Stat. § 196.011, Annual application required for exemption
- Fla. Stat. § 196.031, Exemption of homesteads
- Fla. Stat. § 222.17, Manifesting and evidencing domicile in Florida
- Florida Department of Revenue, TIP 07C02-01, Repeal of Annual Intangible Personal Property Tax
- 26 U.S.C. § 121, Exclusion of gain from sale of principal residence
- IRS, Questions and Answers on the Net Investment Income Tax
- New York State DTF, 2025 Instructions for Form IT-203
- 20 NYCRR § 132.18, Earnings of nonresident employees and officers
- 20 NYCRR § 132.24, Stock options, stock appreciation rights and restricted stock
- Massachusetts DOR, Massachusetts 4% Surtax on Taxable Income
Reviewed and updated September 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.