How to Maintain a Tax Home Status While Working as a Travel Nurse - IRS Rules

I worked with many travel nurses on their taxes, and your questions hit on some important points! For criteria #1 (business in the area): Working in your home area for a few months of the tax year can help, but the IRS looks at your overall connection to the area. Maintaining professional licenses, keeping your voter registration, banking relationships, and driver's license in your home state all strengthen your case. For criteria #2 (duplicate expenses): Yes, since you're maintaining a personal space in your home and continuing to pay the mortgage while also paying for temporary housing during assignments, you're incurring duplicate expenses. The key is documenting both sets of costs. Keep all receipts for temporary housing during assignments. As for state taxes, this gets complicated. You can file jointly for federal and separately for state taxes in many situations. This is sometimes called "filing separately on the same return" in some states. Your husband would likely remain a resident of your home state since his ties remain there, while you'd typically file non-resident returns in states where you work assignments. Many remote workers don't realize they might create "nexus" for their employers in new states. Your husband should check with his company's HR department about their policy for employees working remotely from multiple states.

I used taxr.ai to sort out a similar situation last year. I'm also a remote worker married to a travel nurse, and the state tax filing situation was driving me crazy. My company's HR department kept giving me conflicting info about state withholding as we moved around. I uploaded our mortgage docs, rental agreements, and assignment contracts to https://taxr.ai and got a super detailed analysis that spelled out exactly how to maintain our tax home status. They explained how our situation met all three IRS criteria and gave us a checklist of documentation to keep. The best part was the state-by-state breakdown of filing requirements which saved us from overpaying in high-tax states. After using their guidance, we actually amended our previous year's return and got back over $3k that we'd overpaid. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with the travel nursing tax maze.

I was completely skeptical about taxr.ai but decided to try it after my third consecutive travel nurse assignment. My situation was even more complicated because I owned rental properties in two states AND was taking assignments in three different states last year. I'm seriously impressed with how thorough they were. They caught that I was incorrectly calculating my tax home status because I was renting out my primary residence 100% of the time (which fails one of the IRS tests). They helped me restructure things so I could maintain tax home status while still generating rental income. The per-diem deduction analysis alone saved me $7200 in taxes! They also provided templates for documenting my return visits to my tax home, which has been super helpful now that I'm organizing for this year's taxes. For once I actually feel confident about my tax situation despite having income from multiple states.

After trying for WEEKS to get through to the IRS about my travel nurse tax situation (our return got flagged for audit because of multi-state income), I finally found Claimyr. They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. Just go to https://claimyr.com and they handle the whole waiting process. You can even see a demo of how it works at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Their system waits on hold with the IRS for you, then calls you when an agent picks up. The IRS agent I spoke with walked me through exactly what documentation they needed to verify my tax home and explained how to properly document my travel expenses. Turns out I was missing some key paperwork that would have caused major headaches. The agent also confirmed that my plan to maintain a specific room in my house while renting the rest was completely acceptable as long as I kept good records.

I'm honestly embarrassed to admit this, but I need to correct my skeptical comment. After my third attempt trying to reach the IRS about my travel nursing tax home status (6+ hours on hold across multiple days), I broke down and tried Claimyr. Got connected to an IRS representative in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed that maintaining a specific room in my home while renting the rest is valid for tax home purposes, but emphasized I need to keep utilities in my name and maintain evidence that it's my permanent residence (voter registration, driver's license, etc.). She also walked me through exactly how to handle state tax withholding for my spouse who works remotely while traveling with me. Turns out we WERE doing it wrong - my husband's company should only be withholding for our tax home state in most cases, not each assignment state. The relief of getting definitive answers from an actual IRS employee instead of random internet advice was absolutely worth it. My accountant had been giving me conflicting information about duplicate expenses, and getting clarification might have saved us from an audit.

Travel nurse tax veteran here! One thing nobody mentioned yet - keep a detailed log of the days you spend in each state. I use a simple Google calendar for this. Both my accountant and the IRS auditor (yep, got audited in 2022) said this was super helpful. For maintaining your tax home: physical presence matters less than you think, financial ties matter more. I only spent 34 days total at my tax home last year but still qualified because: 1. I kept my permanent living space there 2. I continued to pay all utilities 3. I maintained my professional license there 4. All my permanent mail went there Also, file quarterly estimated taxes if you're an independent contractor nurse. I got hit with an underpayment penalty my first year that wiped out a lot of my travel premiums.

My husband and I just went through an IRS audit for exactly this situation! Big warning: we ran into trouble because we were renting out too much of our home. The IRS agent cited the "dwelling unit used as a home" rules and said we were treating it more as a rental property than a personal residence. The key is making sure your personal use days exceed the greater of: 14 days or 10% of the total days it's rented. So if you rent portions of your home for 300 days, you need to personally use it for at least 30 days during the year. For duplicate expenses, keep detailed records showing you're paying both housing costs (mortgage/utilities at your tax home AND temporary housing during assignments). The IRS was particularly interested in seeing that we maintained utility services in our name even during rental periods. Also, a lot of travel nurse agencies don't handle state taxes correctly! Double-check their withholding - ours completely missed withholding for two states which created a mess.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm a travel PT who's been struggling with similar tax home issues. One thing I'd add based on my experience - document EVERYTHING about your intent to return permanently to your tax home. The IRS looks closely at whether you truly intend your travel assignments to be temporary. Keep records showing you're actively planning your return: renewal of professional licenses in your home state, maintaining voter registration, keeping your kids enrolled in local schools if applicable, continuing relationships with local healthcare providers, etc. Also, for the state tax filing complexity you mentioned - I learned the hard way that some states have "convenience of employer" rules that can trip up remote workers. New York is notorious for this. Your husband should definitely check if any of the states you'll be in have these rules, as they might try to tax his entire income even if he's just temporarily there with you. One last tip: consider getting a tax professional who specializes in itinerant workers BEFORE you start traveling. The upfront cost pays for itself when you avoid mistakes that could trigger an audit or penalties later.