Travel Nurse Employment: Tax Advantages of Per Diem Deductions

Taxes are a pain, and so are the annual receipts and quarterly payments that come with them. But did you know that by traveling as an employed nurse, you may be able to lower your tax liability? In this blog post, we'll go over the ways in which your employer can help you lower your taxes through discounts on what you pay for travel and lodging expenses — including your paycheck!

Here’s a quick summary of potential deductions:

- Housing Allowance

- Mileage Allowance for driving to work

- Lodging Allowance at work if it’s not provided by the hospital or clinic. This includes any meals consumed while away from home.

- Meal Allowance. If you purchase any food (prepared or not) while on business, there is a per-day allowance for the work day.

- Mileage Allowance for traveling to your job site.

- Lodging Allowance if going to an offsite interview or job site.

- Meal Allowance when going out of town on business, to interviews or job sites.

These are very small deductions per pay period (you can check in IRS Circular 230), and they can be worth having if they are part of a larger strategy to lower your tax liability as an employed nurse (and sometimes as a nurse practitioner).

With that said, here are a few tips to reduce the pain of taxes:

- Keep receipts for all your travel and lodging expenses. Use any applicable discounts you get from hotels and rental car companies (AAA, corporate discount, etc.) When you get reimbursed for mileage and lodging, make sure to keep the original receipt. When you get an expense report for a per-diem pay period, make sure to keep it as well. I do this in my own life by using Evernote for all my receipts in one place.

- Be mindful of what you’re eating when on company time or when traveling away from home. If you’re eating at a restaurant on business, examine the prices and portion sizes. Does it make sense to claim that what you’re eating is a 1/2 cup of rice with your family-sized bucket of fried shrimp? You don’t want to get audited by the IRS or have your $10.00 meal turn into an $80 deduction.

- Be positive! If you have all your travel receipts, use our free tax estimation software to determine if any of these deductions are worth having. This can save you time in the future when there is less chance for error. Just try not to get too excited about your extra money because... taxes .

To read more blog posts, visit the Travel Nurse Employment category page.

- Erin Thiesen, MA, MHSAI/CCH, CWHN/SAH

Employed as a Travel Nurse by Surgical Associates of Albany (SAA) since 2009. Currently on a 6 month contract.

Being a Travel Nurse is a challenging job. I have been working full-time with SAA in Albany, NY since September 2009. Of course, there are many benefits of traveling and being able to see the world, but working as a travel nurse still demands hard work and dedication (and even more so now because there are very few jobs available).

Right now, my responsibilities are to do my job well and to help out anyone who needs assistance. This includes helping nurses with new patients or explaining something that nurses want me to explain (for example: I used to do nursing lectures for other staff at SAA's training center). Our nurse managers also request that I help other nurses with things like interviewing and CPR Certifications. Every now and then, I get to schedule a shift at the hospital so that other nurses can have a break.

While working as a Travel Nurse requires a lot of time, it is very fulfilling and rewarding. In addition, travel nursing jobs are not easy to find and they pay well if you're in the right place at the right time (like at this moment). As it stands now, SAA has only seven traveling positions available for nurse practitioners — there are many more dedicated nurse practitioners who want to work as travel nurses but cannot find positions to do so.

When I first began working as a Travel Nurse, I only had an AA in Biology and very little work experience. This was not my first career choice (I planned to become a veterinarian) but it worked out well since I could transition into travel nursing rather quickly. It has been almost five years since I began traveling and even though the job is physically demanding, it has taught me many valuable life lessons that I can use in my daily life. My travel nursing experiences have made me a much more confident person than when I first started traveling.

Travel nursing allows me to see the world and experience things that most people will not ever get to do. More importantly, it allows me to bring my experience to others and make a difference in their lives. Travel nursing enables me to enrich other people’s lives and, in turn, my own.

Travel nursing has helped me learn how to deal with the challenges of being away from home for extended periods of time. I have also learned how to be more independent since I am no longer living with my family. Most importantly, travel nursing has taught me how to better manage my time so that I can complete all my tasks without having any stress or anxiety.

- Erin Thiesen, MA, MHSAI/CCH

Employed as a Travel Nurse by Surgical Associates of Albany (SAA) since 2009. Currently on a 6 month contract.

I have always been the one to help others, even before I became a Travel Nurse. When I was young, I would take care of family members and friends with disabilities or sickness. My parents told me that when I was in the third grade, I would go to my friend's house and tell her mom to make some ginger snaps for my sick friend at home. Sometimes, I even offered to pay for them with my own money!

When I graduated from high school and was working as a CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistant), there were many times that co-workers asked me to take over their shift or give them advice on how they could better complete their tasks. While I would love to help any and everyone, my current life goals are more important than doing favors for people.

In my current position at SAA, I am always mindful of the fact that I do not want to work so hard that I get sick myself. So far, this has been my only Travel Nurse experience and there are many times when I have wanted to quit or break down in tears. But for now, keeping myself healthy so that I can work longer hours comes first before anything else.

I know how lucky I am to have this Travel Nurse job — it is certainly not an easy feat to get .

Conclusion

The Travel Nurse industry is a challenging one. Those that choose it must be willing to work hard to make enough money to support themselves while they travel.

Travel Nursing has its ups and downs, but more often than not the downs are far more numerous than the ups.

For those that want to travel nursing and have run out of options, this article will help you determine if travel nursing is right for you.

The benefits can be very rewarding, but are outweighed by the risk of being audited by the IRS and later having to pay back taxes as well as interest.