Wealthy snowbirds who are members of THREE country clubs ordered to pay $60,000 after moving from New York to Florida
An affluent New York couple’s Florida move backfired after officials determined they never truly left the Empire State, in part because they kept their country club memberships, and ordered them to pay nearly $60,000 in back taxes.
John Hoff and his wife, Kathleen Ocorr-Hoff, had planned to retire to Florida but were deemed to have maintained significant ties to New York, per a state tax appeals tribunal decision signed October 9.
That included the couple’s country club memberships to the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester and the Canandaigua Country Club upstate.
Hoff was president of Global Point Technology, a Farmington-based technology services company.
His wife worked as a graphic designer in New York and said she continued that work after moving to Florida.
In April 2021, New York tax officials told the couple they owed $59,648 in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, for 2018 and 2019.
The Hoffs appealed that decision, but it was upheld.
Court filings showed the couple spent 186 days in New York, 131 in Florida, and 48 elsewhere in 2018. In 2019, they spent 164 days in New York, 153.5 in Florida, and 47.5 in other locations.
John Hoff and his wife, Kathleen Ocorr-Hoff, were ordered to pay back around $60,000 in taxes, according to a New York state tax appeals tribunal decision
The Hoffs purchased a 2,560-square-foot condo for $935,000 on Gulf Shore Boulevard in July 2014
In 2011, the couple bought a three-bedroom home in Canandaigua, New York, that was later assessed to have a value of $907,000, per court documents.
Ocorr-Hoff said the couple planned to use that residence on Poplar Beach as their ‘main property until there was a time [her husband] could step away from work.’
About three years later, the New York lovebirds decided to seek out a ‘second home in a warm climate’ joining other ‘snowbirds’ seeking to escape the chilly northeastern winters for balmier climes.
Florida was originally thought to be ‘the last place they would choose,’ according to the filings, but that changed when they visited Ocorr-Hoff’s parents, who had been renting a place to live in the state.
After that, the couple ‘fell in love with the Naples area.’
In July 2014, they bought a 2,560-square-foot condo for $935,000 on Gulf Shore Boulevard.
More than $200,000 of reforms went into the home, whose value was listed at about $1.6million in 2023.
The couple was said to have fallen ‘in love’ with the Naples, Florida, area after visiting Ocorr-Hoff’s parents
Hoff said he and his wife started talking about making Florida their primary residence around 2016 and 2017
Hoff testified that he and his wife started ‘talking about eventually moving their primary residence to Florida’ in 2016 and 2017.
However, it wasn’t until about one year later that the couple’s ‘lives were such that we could really make that permanent move,’ according to Hoff.
The move to Florida was part of his retirement plan, and he had already come up with an ‘exit strategy’ from his company in order to slow down.
Hoff’s son was set to take over his company, but that plan fell apart around June 2018 because of ‘tariffs imposed by the United States on products from China’, per the filings.
Hoff ‘made it perfectly and indisputably clear that he was transitioning his role’ but was ‘ultimately unsuccessful in doing so,’ according to the tribunal decision.
During that time, he was still getting paid a ‘significant salary’ and was still traveling on behalf of the company.
Meanwhile, his wife ‘indicated’ that she had started a new business in Florida, but it was determined that Ocorr-Hoff did not offer proof to establish that.
Her tax returns indicated that she continued working out of New York.
In 2018, the couple spent 186 days in New York, 131 in Florida, and 48 elsewhere, according court filings
One year later, the Hoffs spent 164 days in New York, 153.5 in Florida, and 47.5 in other locations.
The couple’s social life was also deemed insufficient to prove that they had made Florida their primary residence.
Although the Hoffs joined a third country club – The Country Club of Naples – around 2018, they still maintained their other full memberships in the two New York country clubs in Rochester and in Canandaigua.
The couple argued that they had changed their voter registrations and driver licenses to Florida, but that ‘informal declaration’ was also not enough.
The rejection was because the tribunal said items like voter or motor vehicle registration have ‘lost their importance in recent years’ due to their ‘self-serving nature.’
It would have been more persuasive for the Hoffs to offer a ‘comparison of homes, business and social ties and the amount of time spent in each place,’ the decision read.
However, the Hoffs only showed the ‘undisputed trend toward eventually relocating to Florida,’ while not fully leaving New York.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP, who represented the Hoffs, for comment.
