• Keep hard copies of all contracts and paperwork. Make sure you have paperwork proving your start and end dates to prove temporary work
• Keep all your receipts
• Don’t work in one location for more than 12 months in a 24 Month period. This will demonstrate to the IRS that you’ve abandoned your Tax Home
• If you rent out your primary residence while traveling, it may impact your eligibility for Tax-Free Stipends
• Get a regular PRN job in your tax home and if the income is substantial enough you don’t have to prove your financial obligation in the tax home.

1. Overtime Pay

If you’re considering working overtime for the extra money, you should consider asking for a higher taxable. Overtime laws stipulate that overtime pay is at least paid time and a half of all taxable income. A larger taxable income can help you earn more with Overtime Pay.

2. Loan opportunities.If you’re applying for a mortgage or a loan, banks do not consider tax free stipends or reimbursements in their accounting procedures. Banks will only look at your taxable income
3. Social Security.The check you get when you retire depends on the 35 years of your highest taxable income. Tax-free stipends or reimbursements are not considered for Social Security.
4. Chance of Injury.If you get hurt and can’t work you’re entitled to 2/3 of your taxable pay. This rate does not take into account tax-free stipends or reimbursements.

1. Alaska
   1. No Income or Sales Tax
   2. Relies on estate, excise and gift taxes
2. Florida
   1. Higher property Taxes
3. Nevada
   1. High sales tax 8%
   2. Tax gambling industry
4. New Hampshire
   1. No sales tax except alcohol
   2. High property tax
5. South Dakota
   1. Taxes Alcohol and Tobacco
   2. Low sales and Property taxes
6. Tennessee
   1. High sales and sin tax
7. Texas
   1. Texas Constitution forbids income tax for good
   2. High sales and property taxes
8. Washington
   1. Has never had income tax
   2. High sales taxes
9. Wyoming
   1. No income taxes for personal or corporate
   2. Low sales and property taxes as well
   3. Tax fossil fuel industry

Remember, when you go to file your taxes in April, or quarterly, you must pay income taxes in all of the states you worked and your home state. You have to pay in your home state even if you didn’t work there.

Also, if one of the states above is your tax home, you only have to pay income taxes in the states that you work. Now if your home state has a higher income tax than the states your working in, you don’t pay twice. The amount you pay in the state where you’re working will count as a credit towards the overall sum your home tax state requires.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 did away with job related expenses at the federal level, but a handful of states still allow job expense deductions, such as New York, California, Alabama, Hawaii, and Arkansas, so there may be additional tax deductions you can make if you’ve worked in a qualifying state.

In order to prove you have a tax home, you, as a travel nurse will need to do one of two things:

Prove that the area in which your primary residence is located, is also the same area in which you earned the most income last year, or,

Be able to prove you visited your primary residence at least once in 2021, and are also able to prove that you have financially maintained it.

In order to keep your travel stipends, tax free, you will have claim and be able to prove you have a tax home. If you do not claim a tax home, your travel stipends will then be taxes at the same rate as your base income.

Travel nurses can take the following steps to ensure that they qualify for a tax home in the eyes of the IRS:

• Keep proof of any payments you are making to show that someone else is maintaining your primary residence. For instance, things like receipts for a house sitter, mortgage, rent, utilities, or home maintenance expense.
• Maintain your driver’s license and voter registration in your home state.
• Keep your car registered in your home state.
• Keep a per-diem position, if possible, in your home state.
• Return to your permanent home at least once every 13 months.
• File a Residence Tax Return with your home state.

Travel nurse stipends are tax-free. These tax-free stipends are used to cover duplicated expenses you incur while traveling with your job and include duplicated housing, travel and meal expenses. This tax-free money is not reportable as taxable income as long as you are duplicating these expenses.

https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates

The Where’s My Refund tool provides refund information for prior tax years. Click on the following link to be redirected to the IRS website.
https://www.irs.gov/refunds