Travel Nursing Blog

Everything you need to know about travel nursing including finding travel nursing companies, negotiating pay, taxes, travel nursing jobs, and more.

Travel Nursing Pay – The Disadvantages of Tax-Free Money

You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to avoid tax-free money. I mean, who could possibly want to pay taxes, right? Unfortunately, there’s a catch. In fact, there are quite a few catches. First, you want to make sure you even qualify to receive tax free money. Once you’ve determined that you qualify, you must consider that your taxable income has ramifications for several other financial matters.   Read more

Travel Nursing Pay – The Benefits and Reasons for Tax Free Money

In our last blog post we provided some basic background information on the tax free stipends that are commonly a part of travel nursing pay packages. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at why tax free stipends are so prevalent in the travel nursing industry and how they can be beneficial to both the agency and the travel nurse.

Every company you come across will be offering you tax free stipends. In fact, you would have difficulty finding an agency willing to pay you an all taxable income with no tax free stipends at all. The very simplified logic for this is that tax free stipends are offered for travel nursing jobs because they can be. But a deeper look at the issue provides insight in to how companies benefit from offering tax free stipends and how they are in a sense almost forced to offer tax free stipends. Read more

Travel Nursing Pay – Tax Free Money – Basic Information

Now that we have a pretty solid understanding of the basics of the travel nursing pay package (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), let’s discuss the “Tax Free” aspect that everyone seems so fascinated with. I mean, what’s not to be fascinated about?! You’re not going to have to pay any taxes!! Is it possible that Benjamin Franklin was wrong when he said, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”? The answer is yes, possibly. Please note the emphasis on “possibly.”

Before I offer any further information it’s important to note that I am not a tax adviser, Certified Public Accountant, or Lawyer. I am not in any way providing any tax advice. All information regarding taxes is informational and intended as a jumping off point. You must seek the help of professional tax advisers to gain a clear understanding of your unique circumstances. We recommend the folks at traveltax.com. That said we can move on to a detailed discussion of this issue. Read more

Travel Nursing Pay Package Comparison Strategy: Part 3

In Part 2 of this series we provided an example of a “blended hourly” rate comparison for travel nursing pay packages. In this blog post we’ll provide an example of a “total value” comparison for travel nursing pay packages.  The total value comparison is bit more straightforward. Our goal here is determine the total value of the entire contract. To do so, we again begin with the number of weeks and hours per week to determine the total number of hours in the contract. Read more

Travel Nursing Pay Package Comparison Strategy: Part 2

In Part 1 of this series we discussed the importance of viewing the travel nursing pay package as a pie and determining the total number of hours in the contract being examined. The next step is to determine the dollar values of each piece of the pie.

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Travel Nursing Pay Package Comparison Strategy: Part 1

Comparing travel nursing pay packages can be very difficult. There are many different variables involved and no two agencies quote pay packages the same way. Travel nurses need a strategy that helps them take control of the situation. So in this series of blog posts, we’ll provide you with a strategy to simplify the comparison of pay packages. Read more

Travel Nursing Pay – Dispelling the Myths

The multitude of variables involved with a travel nursing pay package make it pretty complicated and difficult to understand. In addition, there are several myths about pay packages that serve to further obfuscate the matter. In this blog post, we’ll look to clarify some of the confusion that these myths leave in their wake. Read more