Travel nursing taxes hinge on one thing: your tax home. Get it right and your stipends stay tax-free; get it wrong and they're all taxable.
Most travel nurses are W-2 employees of their agency, but the pay is split between taxable hourly wages and tax-free stipends for housing, meals, and incidentals. Those stipends are only tax-free if you maintain a legitimate permanent tax home and are duplicating expenses while on assignment.
You'll also typically file in multiple states each year as assignments move, and a few nurses work as 1099 contractors instead. The rules here are nuanced and audited — this is exactly the kind of return worth having a real preparer handle.
Income you’ll report on: W-2, 1099-NEC.
Most people in this line of work leave money on the table. Here's what we make sure to capture:
If you earn as an independent contractor, yes — self-employment tax is 15.3% (Social Security and Medicare) on your net profit, on top of regular income tax. You deduct half of it, and every business deduction lowers what you owe. We handle the calculation on Schedule SE.
Common write-offs include maintaining a permanent tax home (the key to tax-free stipends), multi-state filing across assignments, licensure and certifications in multiple states, scrubs, equipment, and ceus (where deductible), plus a share of your phone and any home-office use. We go through your year line by line so nothing legitimate gets missed.
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS generally wants quarterly estimated payments to avoid an underpayment penalty. We calculate them so next April isn't a surprise.
Yes. Your income is taxable whether or not a client or platform sent a 1099. We report it correctly and offset it with every deduction you qualify for.
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