Many people live in Florida for the winter and keep a home in New York for the summer. New York's statutory test treats someone who keeps a permanent place of abode in the state as a resident if they spend more than 183 days there, counting any part of a day. The trap is that a natural six-month summer is one day too long.
Each person is a Florida resident with a New York home, tax year 2025, counting the arrival and departure day.
| New York stays | NY days | Against the 183-day test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 May to 31 October | 184 | Over by 1 |
| 1 May to 30 September | 153 | 30 days of room |
| 15 May to 10 October, plus 20 to 31 December | 161 | 22 days of room |
The first row is the one people miss: May through October is six calendar months, and with both end days counted it is 184 days. Counting nights only (dropping the departure day) it is 183, which sits exactly on the line with no room, so even the lenient reading leaves nothing to spare. The third row shows why a holiday trip home matters: the December visit costs 12 days of the 34 the person would otherwise have left.
If you keep a permanent place of abode in New York, the statutory test treats you as a resident once you spend more than 183 days there, counting any part of a day. So 183 days is the most you can spend and stay under the line, and a six-month summer from 1 May to 31 October is 184 days. Without a New York abode the day test does not apply, but New York can still treat you as a domiciliary if your ties are there. Check the state's own guidance.
Not by that fact alone. Residency turns on domicile (where you intend to make your permanent home) and, separately, on the abode-plus-days statutory test. Spending fewer than 184 days in New York does not by itself prove you changed domicile, which is why people who move south also keep records of where their ties are. The counter only does the day arithmetic.
New York counts any part of a day spent in the state as a day, so the arrival day and the departure day both count. The counter defaults to that inclusive reading. On the nights reading the 1 May to 31 October summer is 183 days, which looks safe, but only the state's rule decides which reading applies, so plan on the conservative one.
A contemporaneous day-by-day log, plus what supports it: travel receipts and boarding passes, card statements, toll and phone records, and calendar entries. The counter prints a day-by-day log with a blank evidence column and exports it as CSV so you can fill it in as you go.