What is a Florida Declaration of Domicile?

It is a sworn statement filed under Florida Statutes section 222.17 saying that you live in and keep a home in a Florida county and intend it to be your permanent home. If you also keep a home in another state, the statute lets you declare that your Florida home is your predominant and principal home.

Where do I file a Declaration of Domicile in Palm Beach County?

With the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. You can download the form from the clerk's Declaration of Domicile page or pick one up at a clerk office, then bring or mail it to a clerk location to be recorded. The clerk's page points to its fee schedule for the current recording fee and the extra fee if you want the clerk to verify your signature.

How much does it cost to file a Declaration of Domicile in Florida?

Counties set out their own fees. Miami-Dade lists a $10 recording fee and $3 for a certified copy. Broward lists a $10 recording fee for a notarized document, $10 per name if the county notarizes it, and $3 for a certified copy. Other counties publish theirs on a fee schedule, so check your county's page before you go.

Yes. Section 222.17 requires the statement to be sworn, and county pages require the form to be notarized before it is recorded. Some clerk offices offer a notary at the counter for a fee; bring a driver licence, passport or other accepted photo ID.

Does filing a Declaration of Domicile make me a Florida resident for tax purposes?

Not on its own. It is one dated, sworn piece of evidence. The state you left decides whether your domicile changed by looking at your home, family, finances, licences, registrations and where you actually spent your days. If you keep a home in a state like New York and spend more than 183 days there, you can be taxed as a resident there whatever you filed in Florida.

Is my Declaration of Domicile public?

Yes. Once recorded it becomes part of the county's official records, which the public can search. Expect your name, Florida address and former address to be visible.

Do I need a Declaration of Domicile to get the homestead exemption?

It is not a stated requirement, but the homestead application (Form DR-501) asks for the date your declaration was recorded as one of its proofs of residence, alongside your Florida driver licence, vehicle tag and voter registration.

← All posts

Florida Declaration of Domicile 2026: How to File

Quinn Moran · October 6, 2026

The short answer

A Florida Declaration of Domicile is a sworn statement, made under Fla. Stat. 222.17, that your Florida home is your permanent home. You sign it before a notary and record it with the clerk (in Broward, the county Records Division) in the county where you live, usually for a recording fee of about $10. It is evidence of domicile, not proof: the state you left still counts your days and decides for itself whether you really moved.

On this page

The tall modern tower of the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, with the smaller domed historic capitol building in front of it — the Florida State Capitol. Photo: Riis2602, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Declaration of Domicile is the one Florida filing that exists only to say "this is my permanent home." It costs little, takes a notary and a trip to the county, and becomes a dated public record. It is also widely misunderstood: people file it expecting it to end their old state's claim on them, and it does not.

This guide covers what the form is, how to file it in six of the counties where most people moving to Florida settle, and what it does and does not prove. For the wider picture, see the Florida tax residency guide.

What the law says

Florida Statutes section 222.17, "Manifesting and evidencing domicile in Florida", dates from 1941. It lets anyone who has established a domicile in Florida file, with the clerk of the circuit court for the county where they live, a sworn statement that they live in and keep a home in that county and intend it to be their permanent home.

Two parts of the statute matter most for people moving from another state:

If you keep another home elsewhere, subsection (2) lets you declare that your Florida home is your predominant and principal home and that you intend to keep it that way permanently.
The statement must contain a declaration that you are a bona fide Florida resident, your Florida address, the city, county and state where you used to live, and any other places where you still keep a home.

That last point is easy to miss. The form asks you to list the home you kept up north. A declaration that leaves it out is a sworn statement an auditor can later compare with your property records.

How to file, step by step

Get your county's form. Each clerk publishes its own version of the state form. Use the one for the county where your Florida home is.
Fill it in. Your Florida address, your former address and the date you moved, any other homes you keep, and your signature and printed name. Some county forms are worded "my/our declaration", so a couple can sign one form; check yours.
Sign in front of a notary. Each person signing must appear before the notary with photo ID. Several clerk offices have a notary at the counter.
Record it with the county. In person or by mail, with the recording fee and, for mailed filings, a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of the original.
Keep the recorded copy. The recording stamp shows the date, which you will use on the homestead application and may need years later in an audit.

Where to file in six counties

County	Who records it	What the county page says
Palm Beach	Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller	Download the form or pick one up at any clerk location, then bring or mail it to be recorded. Recording fee and signature-verification fee are on the clerk's fee schedule. Palm Beach clerk page
Collier	Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller	Publishes its own Declaration of Domicile form (revised 20 August 2025). Collier clerk form
Miami-Dade	Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, County Recorder	File by mail or in person at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center. Must be notarized first; $10 recording fee and $3 for a certified copy; about four weeks to get it back. Miami-Dade clerk page
Lee	Clerk of Court, Official Records Department	Complete the form and return it to Official Records. Notary available at the counter. Lee clerk FAQ
Sarasota	Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller	Publishes the form on its "Recording - Domicile Forms" page. Sarasota clerk forms
Broward	Broward County Records, Taxes and Treasury Division (not the court clerk)	File at the Governmental Center, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Room 114, or by mail. $10 recording fee for a notarized document, $10 per name if the county notarizes it, $3 for a certified copy. Broward Records Division

Broward is the exception people trip over: official records there are kept by the county's Records Division, not by the Clerk of Courts. Searching the court clerk's site for the form leads nowhere.

What it costs

Section 222.17 says the clerk collects a service charge set by section 28.24, the general recording-fee statute, rather than naming a figure. In practice the counties that publish a number list a $10 recording fee for a one-page declaration (Miami-Dade and Broward), with extra charges for a certified copy, county notarisation or signature verification. Check your county's fee schedule before you go.

What a recorded declaration proves, and what it does not

A recorded declaration is good evidence of intent on a specific date. Florida's homestead application (Form DR-501) lists it as one of its proofs of residence, next to your Florida driver licence, vehicle tag, voter registration and the address on your last IRS return. Our Florida residency requirements checklist walks through each of those items.

It does not settle the question that costs money, which is whether the state you left agrees that you left. Florida has no income tax, so Florida never counts your days. The state you moved from does. A New York or Massachusetts auditor will read your declaration, note its date, and then rebuild where you actually spent that year from phone, card and travel records. If the calendar shows most of your days up north, the declaration becomes a sworn statement that does not match the facts.

That is why the declaration is the start of the file, not the end of it. How the old state counts is covered in Florida has no day count: the two tallies your old state runs, and the audit side in leaving New York and leaving California.

Mistakes to avoid

Filing before you have a Florida home. The statute is for people who already live in and keep a home in the county.
Leaving out the other home. The form asks for every other place you keep a home. List it.
Filing and then living as before. A declaration dated in March followed by a summer and autumn in the old house tells an auditor the opposite of what you meant.
Forgetting the old state's own paperwork. Cancel any residency-based property tax benefit there and move your voter registration, licence and vehicles.

Where iReside fits

The declaration records your intent. The days record what you did. iReside counts the days for you: it runs in the background on your iPhone and records which state you were in each day by GPS, with nothing to log by hand. You can track your old state's 183-day line next to your Florida days, get an alert before you get close, and export an audit-ready PDF report of the year if a residency questionnaire ever arrives. To see where your year stands now, try the free residency checklist or 183-day calculator.

Download free on the App Store