Travel-Nurse Hotel Stays: Tax Home and Temporary-Assignment Questions

A family home is not automatically a tax home

IRS Publication 463 generally defines a tax home as the regular place of business or post of duty, including the city or general area, regardless of where the family home is. A nurse should not assume that keeping a mailing address in another state establishes that they are traveling away from a tax home. The location and pattern of work matter.

If there is no regular workplace

Where a person has no regular or main place of business, the IRS considers whether the place they regularly live is a tax home. The publication lists three factors, including doing some work in that area, duplicating home living expenses because work requires being away, and not abandoning the area of the historical home or returning there regularly. Satisfying all three supports that home; two calls for a facts-and-circumstances assessment; only one means itinerant treatment under the publication. Paying rent alone is not the complete test.

Temporary versus indefinite assignment

The IRS generally calls a single-location assignment temporary when it is realistically expected to last, and actually lasts, one year or less. An assignment realistically expected to last more than one year is indefinite, even if it ends sooner. The publication also illustrates a change in expectations during an assignment: travel treatment can change when it is no longer realistic to expect a duration of one year or less.

Why extensions need a fresh tax review

A short contract document is relevant but does not settle the whole analysis. Before extending, ask an adviser to evaluate the expected total period at the location and your work pattern. Do not treat a new contract number, hotel move or brief return home as an automatic reset. This guide does not infer a reset rule that the cited publication has not established for your circumstances.

What to take to the adviser

• Assignment dates, extensions and the dates when expectations changed.
• Your regular work locations and time spent in each area.
• Records of housing costs at home and at the assignment.
• The employer's reimbursement or allowance plan and how expenses are reported.
• Hotel receipts and other records requested by the adviser.

Hotel receipts do not certify a stipend

A paid hotel bill documents an expense; it does not by itself establish a tax home or the tax treatment of an employer's allowance. Ask the employer and adviser about the actual plan. For the accommodation decision itself, the separate healthcare-worker guide covers the room and commute questions without confusing them with these federal tax conditions.