confused about tax home! help!

[adpiRN]

My original plan was for my husband and I to sell our apt, use my parents' house as our home base, and do some travel nursing for a few months.

Then I started reading all about the tax home rule and got confused.

We don't want to keep our apt while we travel because it is very expensive to maintain (over $2,800/month) and renting it out is not really possible with our building rules.

I hear though that you can't use your parents' home legally as a tax home and we don't want to take that risk.

Can we just be honest with the recruiters, explain that we don't have a tax home and still be able to travel? What would be different?

My understanding is it would just mean our housing and stipend would NOT be tax-free. So maybe I'd pay a few hundred a month out of my paycheck in taxes? Is that how it works? That's still a lot cheaper than keeping an apt in NYC!

Would those taxes be at the rate of the state in which I'm working?

So confusing!

[meandragonbrett]

Where did you hear that you cannot use your parent's home as a tax home? You will need to pay them rent (and not $50 per month) and that will be taxable income for them.

Maintain your driver's license, voting registration, state RN license, return back home between assignments and work some per diem agency shifts, etc.

And yes, you can travel without a tax home but your per diems and housing are taxed.

[79Tango]

What he said ^

[adpiRN]

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks. Some threads on here said you can't use your parents' house, but I guess there are ways around it.

I'd have to talk to my parents and an accountant.

If you do it this way, do you need to tell your recruiter that your parents' house is your tax home? Or is this something they never ask and you just put the address on a form and call it your tax home?

So if you have a tax home, housing and stipend are tax free, but what about your income?

Do you still have taxes taken out of your paycheck while on assignment and, if so, is this at the tax rate of the state you're earning the money in? Or the state where your tax home is?

[meandragonbrett]

Your travel company couldn't care less where, who what, when, where, or how you have a tax home. All they care is whether or not you declare somewhere as a tax home or not so they know whether to tax you or not.

State taxes are a different story. You will have state taxes taken out for the state you are currently working in and you will have to file a return for each state that you worked in that year to get back the portion that you are entitled to be refunded.