Understanding how travel nurses are compensated can be confusing. There’s a lot of information out there about taxes, stipends, and hourly rates; enough to make your head spin. To help you get started, we’ve broken down some of the common factors that may impact a travel nurse’s pay and organization tips for managing your taxes as a traveler. Keep in mind, there are many variables that impact each traveler and each assignment, so when it comes to the specifics, you will need to evaluate your circumstances on an individual basis.
Staff nursing compensation is relatively straight forward and you may be more familiar with that process. Travel nurses, on the other hand, may receive non-taxable expense reimbursements to help cover housing, meals and other costs while on their travel assignment. A traveler can also receive travel reimbursements for getting to and from their next assignment. In addition to the composition of the compensation package, other job specific variables can weigh in on the potential value to each assignment.
What Affects Your Wages?
- Location: States with higher costs of living (like California and New York) and big cities usually offer higher rates for travel nurses.
- Demand: Rates can also be higher if a facility has a critical need to fill or the destination of the assignment is considered less desirable.
- Shift: Flexibility is crucial as a travel nurse, especially if you want to fill your bank account. Hospitals usually offer higher rates for less desirable shifts (nights, weekends, etc.).
- Bonuses: Bonuses are quite common in the field of travel nursing. Some common types include sign-on, completion, retention, and referral bonuses.
Taxes
Determine Your Tax Home
A portion of your take home pay includes the non-taxable meals and lodging stipend as you are away from home and duplicating your regular living expenses from your Tax Home. For taxation purposes, it is crucial to determine where yours is.
Understand Your State Responsibilities
Chances are that you have worked in multiple states throughout the year, each with a different tax requirement. Some, like Texas, Florida, and Washington have no state income tax. Knowing state tax information is part of your filing responsibilities.
Save Your Documents
Make sure you keep track of your receipts for all your living expenses like meals, utilities, and other expenses so you can include these in your tax returns. Stay in the habit of keeping each contract you work in case it is needed come tax time. You can use apps like Expensify or CamScanner, or go old-school with a shoebox. Whatever you choose, just make sure you’re keeping track.
