Florida Declaration of Domicile: how to file it

Updated October 21, 2026. Not tax or legal advice.

A Florida Declaration of Domicile is a sworn statement that you live in Florida and intend to keep your Florida home as your permanent home. You sign it under oath and file it with the clerk of the circuit court in your county. It helps your case, but on its own it carries little weight in a New York residency audit.

What the law says

Florida Statutes §222.17 lets a person who has established domicile in Florida file a sworn statement with the clerk of the circuit court of the county where they live. If you also keep a home in another state, the statement says your Florida home is your predominant and principal home. Fla. Stat. §222.17

How to file

1. Get the form from your county clerk's website or office. Counties use the form the Department of Legal Affairs prescribes. §222.17
2. Fill in your name and Florida address, your former address, any homes you keep in other states, and (on some county forms) your spouse and children under 18. Duval County form
3. Sign it under oath before a notary public or a deputy clerk.
4. File it with the clerk of the circuit court in your county and pay the recording charge. Check your county clerk's site for the current amount.
5. Keep the recorded copy with your other move records.

How much it helps

In New York audits, formal declarations such as voter and vehicle registration have been called self-serving and given little weight when the rest of a person's life stayed in New York. McLaughlin & Stern File it, but treat it as one item on the full checklist, not the proof itself.

It can also serve as one of the records for the homestead application, next to a Florida driver license. PBCPAO