Where do you live when you travel?

lmessajumper · Feb 20, 2007

Check out this site that has the tax implications re: permanent tax home vs. having none - Kobaly.com. I have been traveling for 7 years and we sometimes take assignments within one day's drive from my home (my childhood home where my parents still live and my "tax home"). We also take assignments in the large city near my home town and live in my town and commute (needs to be about 50 miles away to still be "on assignment") and then we also go cross country. I have also stopped traveling for a while and I worked local agency per diem. There are so many choices. I love it. You will have to figure out what you like to do and what is easier for you.

LadyNASDAQ · Feb 22, 2007

I have worked up to 39 weeks but ALWAYS come home afterwards. Then I work local agency. There is never a concern about residency or tax home vs residency.

Find a good tax preparer. I have talked with a few of these so-called people online and many won't be so free with advice as you may think or give you the wrong advice. Instead, find a good tax preparer in your area and discuss what you want to do and if they are experienced with traveling and taxes. Many will tell you to look up Publications online which is confusing and should be explained to you . There is an art to keeping receipts and being very organized. It's not hard but you have to know what you can and cannot do.

caliotter3 · Feb 22, 2007

I do not do travel nursing but have considered it. I used to have a mortgaged home, that I moved out of when I lost a job. I have always considered it to be my permanent home, until I recently lost it through fraud. So now I consider myself to be truly "homeless". I have used private mail box addresses as my address of record ever since I moved out of my mortgaged home, and ran into no problems, until recently, with one of my employers. This little scenario does not apply directly back to your situation, but it does go to show that problems about residency etc. can really compound. It really is convenient to have a home base, be it with relatives, friends, or a significant other. Then you don't have some of the complexities that can come up with the nomadic lifestyle. I met one traveler, who is in my state temporarily, due to work. She has kept her mortgaged home which is on the opposite side of the country. She (illegally) keeps the license plates of her home state on her car, and her original driver's license. She says she has no intention of changing anything. After being hired by an employer, they let her go after a couple of days because her background investigation showed that she was keeping her home address. She told me that she told them they could "stick it".

lorster · Feb 25, 2007

I do not do travel nursing but have considered it. I used to have a mortgaged home, that I moved out of when I lost a job. I have always considered it to be my permanent home, until I recently lost it through fraud. So now I consider myself to be truly "homeless". I have used private mail box addresses as my address of record ever since I moved out of my mortgaged home, and ran into no problems, until recently, with one of my employers. This little scenario does not apply directly back to your situation, but it does go to show that problems about residency etc. can really compound. It really is convenient to have a home base, be it with relatives, friends, or a significant other. Then you don't have some of the complexities that can come up with the nomadic lifestyle. I met one traveler, who is in my state temporarily, due to work. She has kept her mortgaged home which is on the opposite side of the country. She (illegally) keeps the license plates of her home state on her car, and her original driver's license. She says she has no intention of changing anything. After being hired by an employer, they let her go after a couple of days because her background investigation showed that she was keeping her home address. She told me that she told them they could "stick it".

Wait a minute, this makes no sense to me. If this woman owns a home and is traveling for her profession, she is a resident of that state. She has to claim a state as her tax base. I don't think she is giving you the right information.

caliotter3 · Feb 25, 2007

That could be, lorster. We do have a lot of people in our state who keep their license plates, etc. for other states b/c of the cost of registering here (too expensive). Also there are military people who have home bases anyway and may or may not change their legal residence, depending on their own plans. The company that would not keep this person, could very well have had a legitimate reason for not keeping someone who would not exhibit plans to make a move to the state as permanent. I found the lady's attitude to be one of entitlement or "nobody is going to make me do what I don't want to do". Good for her, I say. I wonder how she went about filing her state taxes. Food for thought.