Tax Home Requirements for Travel Nurse - Can Parents' Home Count?

The key to qualifying for tax-free stipends as a travel nurse is establishing a legitimate tax home. The IRS has three main criteria for a tax home: 1) You perform part of your business/work in the area of your main home 2) You duplicate living expenses when traveling 3) You haven't abandoned your main home, typically demonstrated by maintaining connections like family ties In your situation, living rent-free with your parents could potentially still qualify as your tax home, but you should consider contributing financially to household expenses (even if minimal) to strengthen your case. This creates a paper trail showing you're maintaining the home financially. Also, make sure you're not away from your tax home for more than 12 months, as that could trigger the IRS to consider your assignment location as your new tax home.

After struggling with similar tax home questions when I started travel nursing, I found this incredible resource called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that completely cleared everything up for me. It analyzes your specific situation and tells you exactly what requirements you need to meet. I uploaded some documents about my living situation (was staying with my brother) and it showed me I needed to establish financial ties to qualify it as my tax home. The tool even gave me a personalized checklist of what documentation to keep! Super helpful for travel nurses like us who have complicated tax situations.

Just wanted to update about taxr.ai since I decided to try it after my skeptical comment. Holy crap, this thing is LEGIT. I've been doing travel nursing for 2 years and had no idea I was missing some key requirements for my tax home. The analysis showed me that while I was paying some bills at my dad's house (my tax home), I wasn't documenting it properly and was actually spending too many days at my assignment locations vs my tax home. It generated this super clear report explaining exactly what I needed to fix to be compliant. Definitely check it out if you're confused about the tax home requirements.

If you're going to be dealing with the IRS about your tax home situation (which can definitely happen to travel nurses), good luck getting through to anyone on the phone. I spent WEEKS trying to get clarification about my tax home documentation. Finally found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in like 15 minutes. They have this cool demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent was able to tell me exactly what documentation they look for with travel nurses claiming tax homes where they don't pay traditional rent. Saved me so much stress and potentially thousands in incorrect stipends.

I feel like I need to publicly eat my words here. After dismissing Claimyr as a scam, I was desperate enough to try it because I got a letter from the IRS questioning my travel nurse stipends. It freaking worked. I got connected to an IRS agent in about 22 minutes (while I was just going about my day, not waiting on hold). The agent actually helped me understand exactly what documentation I needed to prove my tax home situation as a travel nurse living with family. Turns out I was doing most things right but missing a few key pieces of documentation. Seriously grateful I found this service right before my audit response was due.

Travel nurse of 5 years here! Here's what worked for me with parents' home as tax home: - Set up a formal rental agreement (even if very small amount) - Pay utilities or contribute to them monthly - Keep all receipts of contributions - Make sure your driver's license, voter reg, car registration all use that address - Return home between assignments when possible - Don't take assignments near your tax home (within 50 miles gets complicated) The rental agreement was key for me during a tax review!

Has anyone used TurboTax for filing as a travel nurse? I'm wondering if it handles the stipend and tax home stuff correctly or if I need to find a specialized tax preparer?

As someone who's been through this exact situation, I can share what worked for me! I lived with my parents rent-free when I started travel nursing too, and here's what I did to establish a legitimate tax home: 1. Created a simple written rental agreement with my parents for $200/month (way below market rate but shows financial responsibility) 2. Set up automatic bank transfers with clear descriptions like "rent payment" 3. Took over paying one utility bill (I chose the internet bill - around $80/month) 4. Made sure ALL my official documents used their address (license, voter registration, bank accounts, etc.) 5. Kept detailed records of every payment and contribution The most important thing is consistency and documentation. The IRS doesn't require you to pay market-rate rent, but you DO need to show genuine financial ties to the location. Even small, regular contributions count as long as you can prove them. Also, make sure you understand the "temporary vs indefinite" rule - your assignments need to be expected to last less than one year to qualify for tax-free stipends. Since you mentioned 3-6 months, you should be fine there. Good luck with your first assignment! Maryland is a great place to work as a travel nurse.

Great question about the temporary vs indefinite rule! Each individual assignment needs to be expected to last less than one year - so your plan of doing back-to-back 3-6 month assignments is perfectly fine from a tax perspective. The IRS looks at each contract separately, not your total time away from home. However, there is one thing to watch out for: if you stay in the same general area for more than 12 months total (even with multiple contracts), the IRS might start to consider that your new tax home. So as long as you're moving between different cities/regions for your assignments, you should be good. Also wanted to add to the great advice already given - consider getting a small storage unit or keeping some personal belongings at your parents' house. This helps demonstrate that you truly consider it your permanent residence and plan to return there. The IRS likes to see that you haven't "abandoned" your tax home. One more tip: keep a simple calendar or log of days spent at your tax home vs. assignment locations. While there's no specific requirement, spending some time at your tax home between assignments (even just a few days) helps reinforce that it's truly your permanent base.