Second home in Colorado, how hard to qualify for in state tuition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colorado has to be your primary residence. You need to abandon your current state of residence and take up new residence in Colorado. This is what is required for domicile- usually, with college tuition you need to prove domicile for 12 months prior to qualifying for in-state.
Domicile means selling your current primary residence or converting it to a second property while converting your Colorado residence to your primary. Voting, driver's license, and general life (library, gym membership, health care, etc.) will need to be Colorado. Sometimes you can be domiciled in one state while spending the majority of time in another (which complicates your taxes)- but you need to prove that Colorado is your home.

...as stated, this is about domicile. You have to be domiciled at least one year in Colorado and claim your child on your income tax before you may claim in state residency. Domiciled means voting, license, primary mailing address, residence for income tax purposes, etc. It has to demonstrably be your home. Future intent and property ownership does not matter.

[Anonymous]

The other thing to keep in mind, is it's all too easy to be a resident no where. The various states have various arrangements, but there's always at least a year until the next kicks in, if at all. Matriculating from an in-state high school is the most foolproof, everything else gets extra scrutiny, or sent directly to appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is allowed to present their case and ask. And after the school spends limited resources checking OP’s status, they can say no.

+100

[Anonymous]

OP I understand what your argument is but you asked "how hard is it to qualify for in state tuition" and I am telling you as a former Colorado resident and graduate of CU Boulder: it is hard.

The fact that you have owned a vacation home for 10 years will be of no consequence. That house could be in Tibet for all the state or the university care. A lot of people own vacation homes in Colorado ski towns and you are not the first one to try this. If anything it will count against you because if you apply as an in-state resident with out-of-state transcripts and an address in Telluride (keep in mind Telluride's high school has a graduating class of less than 100 kids so this will stick out) your application will instantly be flagged as potentially fraudulent. If you lay out your case as you have here it will be denied.

Some thing else to consider is that Colorado state schools pretty much all give admissions preference to in-state students. In-state students who have above a certain GPA can be "auto admits" at certain schools. So you need to be careful here because if you are seen as not only pursuing the benefit of in-state tuition but also looking for an edge in admissions you risk having your kid's application thrown out altogether even if they might have been admitted as an out of state student had you just applied that way.

You also seem fixated on where your kid is living and working. That's not what in-state tuition is for. If you could get in-state tuition simply by living there as a student then very few people would pay out of state tuition. For kids attending at 18 the relevant things the parents' state of domicile. So forget about where your kid will live in the summer or where they will work -- lots of students live and work in the state where they go to school in the summers and it does not earn them in-state tuition because that status is based on where their parents lived and paid taxes before the kid turned 18. For you that is not Colorado.

Your best bet is to apply as an out of state student (which is what your kid is) and then move there and start paying taxes there as soon as possible. Then apply to the financial aid office to convert to in-state status. This is rare but if you are very careful and follow the rules to a "t" then you might get the tuition break on your kid's 3rd and 4th years (it is unlikely that you will be able to clearly establish domicile in order to get the break on sophomore tuition). Your best argument in favor of in-state tuition is the ability to show that you physically lived in *and paid income taxes in* Colorado for 12 continuous months. Anything short of that is unlikely to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

You’ll probably want to move before attending:

No person may establish domicile in Colorado solely for the purpose of changing a student's classification for tuition purposes from nonresident to resident.

Absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that a student classified as a nonresident at the time of matriculation who seeks to establish Colorado domicile while registered at CU seeks Colorado domicile solely for tuition purposes, which is an unlawful purpose [Colorado Revised Statutes § 23-7-101-103(2)(e)].

I see your point but it's case by case and I think owning a home for over a decade in the state holds quite a bit of weight. It's a lot different situation than just living in the dorm and then renting and trying to claim your rental residence as your primary home.

No, it really isn't. And it doesn't matter what "you think."

This is a fascinating insight into the minds of the privileged who believe the law doesn’t actually apply to them … while the factors establishing residency are numerous and no one is determinative, it’s absolutely clear that OP is NOT domiciled in Colorodo now based on ownership of a vacation home; and even if OP can provide “clear and convincing evidence” that she has later become domiciled and it wasn’t for the purposes of in state tuition, it’s still a one-year lookback from the date of matriculation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

You’ll probably want to move before attending:

No person may establish domicile in Colorado solely for the purpose of changing a student's classification for tuition purposes from nonresident to resident.

Absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that a student classified as a nonresident at the time of matriculation who seeks to establish Colorado domicile while registered at CU seeks Colorado domicile solely for tuition purposes, which is an unlawful purpose [Colorado Revised Statutes § 23-7-101-103(2)(e)].

I see your point but it's case by case and I think owning a home for over a decade in the state holds quite a bit of weight. It's a lot different situation than just living in the dorm and then renting and trying to claim your rental residence as your primary home.

No, it really isn't. And it doesn't matter what "you think."

This is a fascinating insight into the minds of the privileged who believe the law doesn’t actually apply to them … while the factors establishing residency are numerous and no one is determinative, it’s absolutely clear that OP is NOT domiciled in Colorodo now based on ownership of a vacation home; and even if OP can provide “clear and convincing evidence” that she has later become domiciled and it wasn’t for the purposes of in state tuition, it’s still a one-year lookback from the date of matriculation.

Its amazing, isn't it. People here have told her exactly what they think - that this is not likely to be ok. She wants to ignore the answers here - fine. That is probably smart. And if she believes that she has a case, she can absolutely ask the Univ and the state. However, to tell us all that it is up to the board after she specifically asked us for our opinion in the title, and then double down on that, is just something else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

You’ll probably want to move before attending:

No person may establish domicile in Colorado solely for the purpose of changing a student's classification for tuition purposes from nonresident to resident.

Absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that a student classified as a nonresident at the time of matriculation who seeks to establish Colorado domicile while registered at CU seeks Colorado domicile solely for tuition purposes, which is an unlawful purpose [Colorado Revised Statutes § 23-7-101-103(2)(e)].

I see your point but it's case by case and I think owning a home for over a decade in the state holds quite a bit of weight. It's a lot different situation than just living in the dorm and then renting and trying to claim your rental residence as your primary home.

No it’s not actually different. Your domicile is where you live now not Colorado. Owning a vacation home doesn’t buy you in state tuition.

We are retired and plan to live half the year there. Tuition would be applied for after the first year. We always have planned to retire there, that’s why we have owned the home there for 10 years. House was not purchased with intent for in state tuition. We are not employed in current state. Child just decided to attend college there and chances they will stay there after is greater than any chance of returning to home stars. We will live in this state more than our current one. It’s not a black or white situation and it’s not fraud.

Lol OP. It actually is black and white: you are not domiciled in Colorado now, and the sole purpose of you establishing domicile would be to obtain in-state tuition. Because we all know that if you kid gets rejected from Boulder but accepted to UVA, you’ll be claiming Virginia domicile.

No, the sole purpose wouldn’t be. We are retiring there and have always planned to (why we bought a house ten years ago) and why we retired early so we wouldn’t have to be tied to this area.

Kid didn’t even apply to UVA. Applied to Colorado College, Boulder, Denver and Mines.

So why aren’t you there NOW? The sole reason for you to move there when you do is to establish residency for in state tuition. And you still have not explained why you are so freakin’ cheap.

Your child can live in the state in which they hope to attend college at the in-state rate, and do what is required to earn residency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

Change where you file your income tax. Retaining your former home may mean not severing ties to your old state. Presumably you would need to switch driver license and car registrations.

If you are doing it anyway, it can't hurt to try, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Plus that's a lot of time to spend living in a mountain town. It's not exactly easy to get to a city from there, unlike, say, Breck.

We already spend about 10 weeks a year there and that's what we love about it. I would have no issue living there year round.

But, you don’t live there year round.
You wanted to remain in one state for certain advantages.
Now, you want to live in another state for certain advantages.
You have to commit and contribute to the state to earn the advantages.

Yes. And that is what we would be doing, making a decision on which state to commit to because we live between two and will be spending more time in Telluride after our child is out of high school. We have no advantage to stay in our current state. We do not work anymore and our only child will not live there.

“More time” alone does not make you a resident of the state.

Do you rent out either of these homes?

[Anonymous]

Aurora University is a hidden gem. Don’t overlook it.

Colorado is so beautiful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aurora University is a hidden gem. Don’t overlook it.

Colorado is so beautiful!

Aurora University is in Illinois. Maybe you are thinking of some other school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

You’ll probably want to move before attending:

No person may establish domicile in Colorado solely for the purpose of changing a student's classification for tuition purposes from nonresident to resident.

Absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that a student classified as a nonresident at the time of matriculation who seeks to establish Colorado domicile while registered at CU seeks Colorado domicile solely for tuition purposes, which is an unlawful purpose [Colorado Revised Statutes § 23-7-101-103(2)(e)].

I see your point but it's case by case and I think owning a home for over a decade in the state holds quite a bit of weight. It's a lot different situation than just living in the dorm and then renting and trying to claim your rental residence as your primary home.

No, they don't care if you've owned the home for 50 years if it has never been your primary residence, and you haven't paid CO income taxes. Thousands of out of state residents have second homes in CO, and opening up that loophole would overwhelm them.

[Anonymous]

We moved to CO from MD and were granted in-state tuition fairly quickly. I was the one who applied for in-state residency first for taking some CE classes at CU Boulder. My kids who went to high school in MD were approved for in-state tuition when they came home during the pandemic and took classes at CU. We did a legitimate move though, selling our house in MD and filing taxes in CO. We did not have homes, jobs or any ties to any state other than CO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it's not worth the trouble for the cost, for someone who has a second home in Telluride.

If you don't sever ties with your current state, that may be an issue. Would you sell your current home?

No we wouldn't. I guess I just don't see the big drawback, if we are retired at this point, to changing our primary residence and we would already be living about half the year in each state. Since we have owned the home for so long, a lot of the proof of domicile is already available (proof of address, utilities).

You’ll probably want to move before attending:

No person may establish domicile in Colorado solely for the purpose of changing a student's classification for tuition purposes from nonresident to resident.

Absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that a student classified as a nonresident at the time of matriculation who seeks to establish Colorado domicile while registered at CU seeks Colorado domicile solely for tuition purposes, which is an unlawful purpose [Colorado Revised Statutes § 23-7-101-103(2)(e)].

I see your point but it's case by case and I think owning a home for over a decade in the state holds quite a bit of weight. It's a lot different situation than just living in the dorm and then renting and trying to claim your rental residence as your primary home.

No it’s not actually different. Your domicile is where you live now not Colorado. Owning a vacation home doesn’t buy you in state tuition.

We are retired and plan to live half the year there. Tuition would be applied for after the first year. We always have planned to retire there, that’s why we have owned the home there for 10 years. House was not purchased with intent for in state tuition. We are not employed in current state. Child just decided to attend college there and chances they will stay there after is greater than any chance of returning to home stars. We will live in this state more than our current one. It’s not a black or white situation and it’s not fraud.

The problem is "planning" to live for half the year there doesn't work & home ownership is irrelevant. If you are in fact already a resident of CO (spend more than 6 months per year in the state, pay CO income tax, have a CO driver's license, vote in CO, etc.), then it won't be an issue. The problem is if you are not currently a resident and you plan to try to become a resident after DC has already been admitted to college, the state of CO applies a very high standard to prove change of residence, and it looks like owning a home in another state and spending any significant time at all out of state means you don't qualify.