Waiting all morning for Pantrav to approve my registration so I can use their calc. But here is the email from Flexcare that I am supposed to be excited over. This hosp is 3 hours away from me and is nowhere near Chicago. Oh, and Fx does not offer housing:
Thank you for that information NedRN. I have done more research today. Ironically I received a call from one of the agencies that was mentioned by you. And received even more valid information from a recruiter. Prior companies I talked with didn't mention exclusively how tax free stipends really work. I still live with parents and don't pay any rent or bills. So the way it was explained was that I should not take any tax free stipends/housing if I am not paying anything on or to a tax home. So I will be halting my search of travel nursing until I read more on traveltax.com
You have the very exception to the rule about payments establishing a tax home. In fact, you do have a tax home. This is your historical place of residence, you have been working from there, and you are not artificially changing residences to go traveling. You even live with close relatives (a factor in an IRS determination. Clearly the recruiter you have been talking to is more informed than many, but a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I'd bet TravelTax will tell you that you should start paying rent (he will talk to you for free), but I think if you question him closely he will admit you are an exception.
For what it is worth, I saw a Flexcare contract today and thought it was well written and fair. One small ambiguous bit of contract language, but my estimation of Flexcare went up a notch.
I live with my godparents and do not pay rent. My license, car and everything else is registered at this address. Am I still able to use their house as my tax home even though legally they are not my parents? I was thinking of sending them monthly "rent" when I travel to keep it as my home base.
Yes thank you NED RN, I did read upon that "I should start paying rent." I just want to make sure I am well informed and making sound judgement before i jump into looking at pay packages and being submitted. I definitely do not want to have any tax issues or "cheat the system" in any means. I sent the travel tax.com company an email to follow up on my questions. But you have pointed out more information to me. I don't want to leave my present facility which I have no problems with and end up getting myself into "trouble or debt" come tax season.
I live with my godparents and do not pay rent. My license, car and everything else is registered at this address. Am I still able to use their house as my tax home even though legally they are not my parents? I was thinking of sending them monthly "rent" when I travel to keep it as my home base.
Whether they are your parents or not is not really relevant. In my opinion you have a solid tax home. But remember, I'm not going to be present at your audit! Just a random internet poster. Certainly when the IRS agent asks you about your expenses at home, you may prefer a better answer than I have lived there 10 years and help my godparents out when I'm at home.
I don't want to leave my present facility which I have no problems with and end up getting myself into "trouble or debt" come tax season.
I'm not following this. Your agency will withhold proper taxes. Reimbursements are not reported to the IRS. If you keep up your tax home and follow simple rules, there are no back taxes. It is unlikely that just traveling will trigger an audit in any case. Usually there is something else going on, inappropriate deductions on an itemized return for example. If you get audited for any reason, that is when anything you did wrong with a tax home may be caught. Nurses are in a very low audit risk category so chances of an audit are miniscule. But if you do everything right, you have nothing to fear from an audit (although they are very stressful of course).
Okay to just to clarify. By me living with parents, i have never lived on my own, I do not pay any rent or bills on the house. My only bills are my student loans and my car note. Is this considered my tax home? Or just claiming this as my place of residence. Would I still be eligible for tax free stipends. I have an appt to talk with someone from travel tax tomorrow. So those questions will be asked.
Yes, please share what you learn! I"m pretty much in the same boat. I don't pay house bills or rent. I do pay for my car, gym, student loans all of which goes to my godparent's address.
Yes I definitely will. Interesting that I talked with 2 recruiters today. One of which I was referred to by a long time travel nurse and he said he couldn't advise me on any tax information (understandable) but on the flip side he was in such a rush to ask me about submitting me and trying to low ball me at 12/hr plus a large tax free stipend. So he is definitely off my list, despite how long he said he said he had been a recruiter. The second recruiter said, she never had been asked those questions and she really didn't know the answer regarding how tax free home and stipends actually are affected. I just thought it was very interesting how these recruiters were so focused on submission of applications and thinking I was just going to rush into making a decision.
The recruiter is not your friend. He is usually a sales representative with no medical background. They want close the deal. You have to know what you need in terms of your contract for hours wages housing and benefits. Say that sounds interesting, I need to think it over, don't ever say yes right away unless you're sure it will work for you.
Blessedone1
32 Posts
Thank you for that information NedRN. I have done more research today. Ironically I received a call from one of the agencies that was mentioned by you. And received even more valid information from a recruiter. Prior companies I talked with didn't mention exclusively how tax free stipends really work. I still live with parents and don't pay any rent or bills. So the way it was explained was that I should not take any tax free stipends/housing if I am not paying anything on or to a tax home. So I will be halting my search of travel nursing until I read more on traveltax.com