Anyone here have multiple extensions with Fastaff?

Hey raindrop,

I'm traveling with Fastaff right now. The pay rate is about 25% higher than what other agencies like Medical Solutions and Cross Country were offering and I have had the hospital ask me 3 weeks in if I will consider renewing my 13 week contract. I don't know if this is "normal" for most assignments with Fastaff, but this facility is expanding to a larger ICU and needs help for at least 6 months. The housing stipend is more than adequate, so for me there is about 30% of it leftover every month.

The benefits for me are pretty good. I got $800 for a travel stipend to either purchase plane tickets or gas and hotel to travel 1000 miles both ways. The health insurance is not great and overpriced, I just went without. The real catch that I didn't realize when I signed up was that the effective rate is considered "straight pay", meaning the entire hourly amount is taxed. They didn't offer a meals and incidentals non taxed portion of the pay. So if you do the math, getting a full tax on your entire amount of pay equals a whole lot being taken out in taxes. You really could have just went with a lower paying rate that only a portion of was taxed and got the same take home pay.

It can be kind of tricky to calculate it all up correctly. Payroll with this company is essentially a voicemail that you don't get a return call from. My agent is okay but can be elusive at times with the hard bottom line money questions. I don't like how they have a pay system that requires you to write down your arrival, lunch and leave times with every shift and requires a supervisor to sign every day. If you take call for a day they want to call the staffing office and check with records if you were considered "on call", of course if you don't get called in staffing claims you were just listed as "available" so you don't get paid for being on call. Administration doesn't like it either, they don't really trust you entirely with your written times and keep wanting to check time clocks.

All I'll warn you is to make sure how much of your hourly wage is taxed. If you make 30% more per hour but the government just taxes it to the extreme they get the extra money and you're left in a higher tax bracket for the year.

You can deduct expenses such as receipted housing (actual cost of provided housing might be on your Fastaff pay report), and 50% of GSA M&IE (per diems) on your tax return. Also mileage less reimbursements. Of course, this is no where near as beneficial as having the agency just pay you the reimbursements or provided housing tax-free as itemizing will lower the benefit dramatically because of thresholds. You also can never get back over withheld FICA. In addition, an agency paid M&IE is not-taxable to the traveler (no need to subtract 50%) and housing can be paid at GSA rates, no need to stick to actual cost (with the traveler able to pocket the difference tax-free).

Very interesting to find out how Fastaff pays. It could be a very old decision on their part and their CFO or attorney just decided there was too much IRS risk involved with "tax advantage". Even the "inventor" of tax advantage, Cross Country, stopped using it for a number of years because of the perceived risk as they went public.

Thanks for sharing! I had no idea any large agency still paid that way. That explains the occasional post I see from travelers that tout not getting any tax-free from an agency in the mistaken belief that it is just as efficient to deduct expenses at the end of the year.

Ok ok, thanks for summing it all up. I was reading thru some contracts that Ive seen with FS and I was pretty confused but it now makes sense. So riddle me this, if I am getting taxed 100 percent and not getting taxfree M/I and if I let FS pay for housing, do I still have to have a "Tax Home" that I pay rent on?

You can be itinerant (no tax home), your choice. The way Fastaff pays versus other agencies is not optimal for tax purposes. You can deduct those expenses at the end of the year, recovering some of the paid taxes. But to do that, you do have to have a tax home. If you are not away from home on business, you cannot deduct business expenses. Right?

Ned is right. In order to take the housing stipend and have it be tax free you must have a tax home. If you do not have a tax home then you can take the stipend but will pay taxes on it, which cuts down how much you actually get from it. If I didn't have a tax home then I would just let them provide me with nice furnished housing that is turn key ready and not worry a thing about finding your own. Besides, the money you would probably save by taking the stipend non taxed and living below the stipend amount you will probably be applying that money to the mortgage/upkeep at your tax home anyway. It comes out about even.

Just to clarify, if you don't have a tax home and take provided agency housing, the agency will (should) withhold taxes for the value of that housing. For a related example using many Florida hospital seasonal programs, they don't play the tax home game at all, and tax all compensation including either provided housing or a housing stipend. Such seasonal travelers who have a tax home and itemize their tax return can recover some of their withheld taxes related to the cost of business working away from home, including provided housing.