Do you think travel nursing is worth it without a tax home? There are definitely some great benefits, but there are also some things to consider. If you don’t meet the requirements for having a tax home, should you still try to maintain one? Will it help or hurt your financial situation? To answer these questions, let’s dive into how travel nurses can benefit from having a tax home even if they live out of state.
It is possible for travel nurses to work every assignment in every state and never have a tax home
One of the most common questions we get from travel nurses is, “What’s a tax home?” A tax home is the state where you have the most significant contact. It’s usually determined by where you live, work, and spend most of your time. If you’re a full-time traveler, then it’s possible for you to work every assignment in every state and never have a tax home!
Travel nurses can still benefit from a tax home if they can’t meet the requirements
If you’re not able to meet the tax home requirements, there are a few things you can do to still benefit from that status. First, remember that your “home of record” is where you are considered a resident. This means that even if it isn’t your job location, it could still be classified as your tax home. Second, if you don’t want to claim state income taxes or property taxes (or any other state-level deductions), then simply leave them off of all forms!
It’s important to note that if you do have an established tax home for any other reasons (such as being stationed somewhere longer than one year), then these rules will not apply—in those cases it is generally easier for someone to qualify as having an actual residence instead of just claiming they live somewhere else because they were there long enough or often enough during their stay at whatever facility they were working at at any given moment during their employment period- is travel nursing worth it.
Do you think you can make reasonable efforts to maintain a tax home even if you don’t meet the requirements?
Do you think you can make reasonable efforts to maintain a tax home even if you don’t meet the requirements?
The IRS states that “a taxpayer is supposed to have a tax home in only one location.” However, there are some situations where it might be possible to argue that maintaining a tax home in another location is reasonable. For example:
- If your assignment is scheduled through a recruiter and they are aware of your intent to return to California when your contract ends, they could help support your case.
- If your employer gives incentives for employees who stay on assignment longer than expected or who make multiple assignments within a short period of time (for example, paying for housing). This would also work in support of an argument for having more than one residence during an assignment.
Consider the benefits of maintaining a tax home despite not being able to meet the requirements.
The IRS is not very strict about tax home rules. If you meet the test for the first five years of your career, you will receive most of the benefits of having a tax home despite not being able to meet the requirements. The idea behind this is that you will eventually move on from travel nursing and settle down somewhere permanently anyway, so it can be beneficial for you to get some use out of your tax home as soon as possible.
In addition to saving on taxes during your initial years as a traveler, maintaining a tax home also helps ensure that any bonuses or other incentives offered by an employer are considered income instead of tips or gratuities-is travel nursing worth it.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our discussion of tax home requirements for travel nurses, and that we have helped you to understand how these requirements can affect your ability to claim a tax home. We also added some points about how you may still be able to claim a tax home even if you don’t meet all the requirements. If none of these options works for you, then perhaps it would be best not to try and claim one at all!
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