If you were a nomad, and travelled around the USA in your car, would you have to pay taxes?

Question

of course you'd have to pay sales tax and such, but would the IRS be after you for state and federal taxes?

Answer 1

if you are not working, you do not have to file.

Answer 2

In the United States, we tax income, and neither paychecks nor dividend payments come from mobile sources. So unless you had a large wad of cash in the automobile with you, the Feds would have a way of taxing your income.

For example, I write newspaper articles and send them in from wherever I happen to be at the time (which is generally home, but not always.) But the payroll lady at the newspaper has to deduct all of the IRS and Social Security payments from the check before she sends it to me or my bank account. And on my W-2, I have to write an address that's real.

If you made a living in a more exciting way--say, by performing magic shows or concerts along the way and passing the hat at the end of each one--then it would be a great deal harder for the IRS to catch up to you. However, tax people are quite good at what they do, and they'll figure it out soon enough, especially when you get to the point where you gain enough success at your shows to require a booking agency.

But yes, you can indeed live below the radar in the US. It has some tempting aspects until you consider what happens if you get old or sick.

Answer 3

the IRS never goes after State taxes, the state does.

if you made money in each of the states during the year and if you did not make enough in each state to pay the state tax but you did make enough to pay the federal tax you would only need to pay the federal tax.

If you made enough to pay taxes in two of the fifty states but not in the others and you did not make enough to pay the federal tax, you would have to pay the state taxes in those two states but not the federal tax nor the tax in any of the other forty eight states.

but you may have tax returns in States you did not have to pay taxes in and if you did not make enough to pay the federal tax you may have a tax return there as well

Answer 4

Staying in states with no state tax, you'd only have to contend with federal and provided you didn't make enough to show on IRS radar... You could conceivably avoid paying taxes.

Answer 5

If you had income, yes. At least you would required to . Whether you could get away with not paying any -- probably. I'm sure a lot of itinerent workers don't file tax returns. But they also may have tax withheld and they may pay more that way.

Answer 6

The IRS doesn't collect state taxes; only federal.

If you have a job (or jobs), and are over the filing limit, yes you would have to file a return.

Each state has its own rules.

Answer 7

You only pay taxes if you have a job.