housing stipend

[tiggerslilyrn]

I am looking at travel nursing and found an assignment an hour drive from my tax home. It meets for the housing stipend? Do I have to use it for housing or can I just bank it and drive? How will this affect taxes and claiming income for taxes? New to traveling.

[emb92250]

In order for the stipend to be tax free, the hospital must be located atleast 50 miles away from your house.

As far as driving each shift, that technically doesn't qualify for a tax free housing stipend. But I know travelers that take the risk and do it. It'll come back to bite you if you ever get audited for your taxes, and a lot of travelers are audited just because their taxes are funky with incomes from various states, non taxable income, etc.

Take 5 seconds and search the forums for the answer to this question. NedRN has answered it in detail several times and always recommends a good website (pantravelers.com I think) that has good articles on this type of stuff.

[NedRN]

Dot com is wrong, just Google PanTravelers to find it. You can also look this up on TravelTax for more help.

There is no 50 mile criteria that applies here. The rule is that if an overnight rest period is required due to job requirements, housing can be supplied as a business expense. For example if this same facility requires you to take call with a thirty minute response time, clearly you would need lodgings closer. Or stacked 14 hour shifts.

If of you commute from home, you are never eligible for special tax treatment no matter the distance. Easy solution, just tell the agency that you are not eligible and to tax all your compensation.