Your decisions on extending

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For those of you that travel primarily to maximize your income as opposed to the thrill of experiencing new places, what for you goes in to deciding to accept an offer to extend your contract, especially when the offer is presented early in to your contract? And let's just assume that you have no serious complaints about the facility or agency. Do you accept right away? Wait until closer to the end of your contract so you can compare to what else is out there? Something else? Interested to hear everyone's thought process.

Tax home requirements and protecting existing tax homes are indeed the subject. However, the information your guy is giving you is quite unique. It might work somehow in your situation, but is certainly not something to be recommending to others without a ton of caveats.

For example, let's say you are circling the San Francisco Bay area and have been doing so for a couple of years, such that all your income derives from the same general area. The same general area is usually defined like this: if you can pick a central residence such that you could commute to all those hospitals (one to many) from that residence, it is the same general area no matter where you might reside from assignment to assignment (particularly pertinent if you are living in an RV). If all that is true, your tax home has shifted and your permanent residence is not your tax home.

The above is a common case (I know lots of travelers doing this), but following your CPA's test will fail in an audit.

It is very difficult to soundbite tax homes in a short forum post. Our industry's tax situation is odd enough that you cannot just pick a random tax preparer and get accurate information. I'd recommend to all new and even experienced travelers to get a free reality check with a real expert such as TravelTax (who also consults with agencies directly, and via his position at NATHO - an association of travel companies). There are just too many possible gotcha scenarios. Besides TravelTax (who is the best known nationally), there are several others who make a specialty (or at least a sub-specialty) of traveler taxes. A full list is available on PanTravelers useful links page. There are a number of articles on tax homes as well on both TravelTax's site and PanTravelers and perhaps that will be sufficient for many travelers without seeking professional advice.

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Specializes in A variety.
Tax home requirements and protecting existing tax homes are indeed the subject. However, the information your guy is giving you is quite unique. It might work somehow in your situation, but is certainly not something to be recommending to others without a ton of caveats.

For example, let's say you are circling the San Francisco Bay area and have been doing so for a couple of years, such that all your income derives from the same general area. The same general area is usually defined like this: if you can pick a central residence such that you could commute to all those hospitals (one to many) from that residence, it is the same general area no matter where you might reside from assignment to assignment (particularly pertinent if you are living in an RV). If all that is true, your tax home has shifted and your permanent residence is not your tax home.

The above is a common case (I know lots of travelers doing this), but following your CPA's test will fail in an audit.

It is very difficult to soundbite tax homes in a short forum post. Our industry's tax situation is odd enough that you cannot just pick a random tax preparer and get accurate information. I'd recommend to all new and even experienced travelers to get a free reality check with a real expert such as TravelTax (who also consults with agencies directly, and via his position at NATHO - an association of travel companies). There are just too many possible gotcha scenarios. Besides TravelTax (who is the best known nationally), there are several others who make a specialty (or at least a sub-specialty) of traveler taxes. A full list is available on PanTravelers useful links page. There are a number of articles on tax homes as well on both TravelTax's site and PanTravelers and perhaps that will be sufficient for many travelers without seeking professional advice.

You and Argo should seriously consider starting a YouTube show arguing points related to travel nursing. A spin off of "Undisputed" where one of you can be the Skip Bayless and the other Shannon Sharpe going back n forth.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.
You and Argo should seriously consider starting a YouTube show arguing points related to travel nursing. A spin off of "Undisputed" where one of you can be the Skip Bayless and the other Shannon Sharpe going back n forth.

Nah, I AM an infant in this game. I have a lot to learn and do learn a lot from ned and others on here and numerous other places. I'm happy to make or argue points but I am not going to have anywhere near to knowledge base of a 20+ year veteran of travelling.

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Specializes in A variety.
Nah, I AM an infant in this game. I have a lot to learn and do learn a lot from ned and others on here and numerous other places. I'm happy to make or argue points but I am not going to have anywhere near to knowledge base of a 20+ year veteran of travelling.

Skip Bayless, if I'm not mistaken, has 0 experience playing pro football and still argues with a 2x SB champ. you were just arguing with some other users in another post for free. Get paid for your skills haha. I'm really kidding but if you guys ever do it you can thank me later

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