worried

There is a difference between a permanent residence and a legal tax home.

You need to speak with a tax professional about this to determine whether or not your situation qualifies for tax free reimbursement. The questionnaire that the agency has you fill out is a general guideline but this could be too serious for you to take the advice of anyone other than an expert. Look for one who specializes in traveling professionals.

I agree with BagLadyRN. I too am in that same situation. I just sent my info and documents to a highly recommended tax specialist who mainly works with travel nurses and other mobile professionals. Visit his website www.traveltax.com he answers a lot of questions. And he backs all of the returns he files in the event one of his clients are audited. The site says they'll call within 48 hours of reviewing the documents sent to him and he includes workbooks to download and fill out that helps answer all the quesitons and maximize your return. I know this really doesn't answer your question but go to the FAQs section on his website. There's a lot of info there!

The only Tax Advantage is the company doesn't pay as much payroll tax for you if you make less per hour. There is no such thing as TAX FREE Money unless you work for the Government or are elected.

Rod.

I doubt the chances that you get audited are very high- I'd chance it, but that's just me!

I am new to traveling. For the 2011 work year, I had a perm position and I still ended up owing the government money. So, before excepting a travel assignment I did my research. Take a look at travel tax.com as recommended by JSJones. It has specific info about tax homes. I agree with groundedandrooted, you are more then likely ok. Have you given your parents money at all? That could be considered rent payment. Most important, do you stay with your parents when you are between assignments? Is your perm address the town you grow up in? Or the place where you filed taxes as a perm employee? Do you go to church there? Perhaps you graduated from HS or nursing school where your perm address is? Do you bank there or have ties to the community? These are all considered in the event of an audit. I learned this info from the travel tax website...

So a little update.... I just finished filing my taxes....didn't use the website I previously recommended but instead went to a CPA locally who does several co-workers' taxes. Anyhow, I originally went to the CPA only for a consult because I was so nervous/worried. When I attempted to file them on my own online, I ended up owing more to my state, the awesome Commonwealth of VA (sarcastically speaking of course), where I had only worked 1.5 months and only about an eighth of my income for year was made, but I owed them more than I was getting back from Federal. The CPA filed me as a part time resident in both states, AZ and VA. I now am getting a refund instead of paying in. He said that it doesn't truly matter where your permanent address especially if you don't have a home in your name and bills in your name there at that permanent residence. I know there are so many things you can look up on the internet, believe me I spent hours looking around and stressing, and I still like the traveltax.com website because their answers were great, but I can't tell you how relieved I was after meeting this CPA and he had my taxes done and submitted with in half an hour. My new outlook.....CPAs don't try to do our job and I won't attempt their job anymore even as simple as some of the online programs make it seem.

I am just beginning to make arrangements for my first travel assignment and have a lot of the same concerns because my husband and I own a home that we pay $1500 for between mortgage & taxes. We don't want to sell with the current market and then risk not liking the travel experience and have no place to come home to but we also don't want to have to continue paying so much that we aren't benefiting from the extra income that traveling provides. I wanted to hire a property management company to rent out our house for us but had a lot of questions about how that would work in the eyes of the IRS so I contacted the guy at www.traveltax.com and did not like what I learned. Even if the house & utilities remain in our name, collecting rent changes our home into a business property rather than a principle residence and would no longer qualify for tax advantage programs. So I asked about using my mom's address as my "permanent address" for tax purposes and how much rent I would have to pay in order for it to qualify in the eyes of the IRS & he told me: "You need to maintain a home/dwelling that you use for your own lodging when home and when engaged in away from home assignments" and in terms of the amount of acceptable rent: "look at the classifieds".

In other words, I need to have two homes & using my mom's house will only qualify if I pay rent in an amount equal to what a similar room rental would go for on craigslist. The whole point of tax advantage programs is to relieve the burden of double expenses. If you aren't paying bills on a permanent home then you don't have double expenses.

He also told me that the IRS would be looking for evidence that you are maintaining contacts at this permanent address, for example returning there between assignments to do per diem work or doctors appointments & things like that.

Something else he told me: "You can work at home to maintain your tax home, but that work and income need to be significant. Eg 3 months along with three 3 month contracts elsewhere". My interpretation of this comment is that if you are not paying expenses throughout the year on a permanent residence that you need to earn at least 3 months of income from that location.

JSJones, I would be a little skeptical of the CPA you saw because of the comment he made "that it doesn't truly matter where your permanent address especially if you don't have a home in your name and bills in your name there at that permanent residence." Unless there's more to it than what you're repeating then that contradicts everything that is on traveltax.com about what qualifies for tax advantage programs. It matters very much from what I've learned. The reason I say this is because of the ties you need to maintain. My husband and I discussed selling our home after a year or so of traveling and buying property further north (vacation home) but from I've been told that property will not qualify, even if we're paying expenses, because I've never worked in that particular location.

I also asked this guy if he could recommend a CPA in my state (WI) and he said: "We have 750 global clients and deal with most long distance. This is normal. There are only 2 people that specialize in travelers that I am aware of and there is no one I know in WI". I for one feel like the entire situation is far too complicated to fully trust someone who is not specializing in travel taxes. Just my $.02.

Sarahc331: Your information is good however, I filed as 'part-year' resident in both states. I didn't claim a "permanent address" in VA which is my home state. I don't think I stated that in my last post. Since I don't have anything major in my name that is registered in the state of VA, I don't really have to claim a permanent residency there. Technically my home is in VA but my work home or 'tax home' is not. According to the IRS website, "Generally, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business or work is located, regardless of where you maintain your family home." I filed my taxes in the states in which I worked in. The hospital I am at now utilizes a lot of travel nurses and most of those have been traveling for years and all say that they only file in the states they have worked in. My taxes along with the two others I travel with have been approved by both federal and state. As far as the 'tax advantage' program some companies offer, it is a marketing slogan, that is it! As per the traveltax website: