Helpful Tax Tips: Allied Healthcare Travelers
As a law-abiding citizen, it’s important to pay taxes to your government in order to receive the services you need. However, an average worker or taxpayer can find it confusing when it comes to paying taxes. For healthcare providers working in multiple states, it becomes more difficult for them to cope with tax time.
Travel healthcare careers are often unique and unpredictable, drawing the attention of many allied heath professionals. At times, the nature of traveling from different states can cause additional tension during tax time. Allied healthcare travelers always have several streams of income from various sources countrywide, putting them at risk during tax season.
Fortunately, there are several tax tips that can help healthcare travelers to maneuver every tax regime. Here are some helpful tips to help you navigate every tax season:
File for Extension
Allied Healthcare travelers find it difficult to file their tax returns in the early months of the tax filing period because their mail is always forwarded. As a healthcare traveler, do not hesitate to file for an extension. This will leave both you and your tax professional with a clear head. Additionally, your tax preparer will have more time to work on your tax report because there’s no deadline to beat.
Take Care of Your Tax Home
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a “tax home” is the general location of your work. Many people often confuse this with the permanent home residence where a healthcare traveler lives. As a healthcare traveler, you need to work away from your tax home to receive tax-free benefits such as transportation, lodging, and meal allowances.
To go deeper, a permanent residence is the location of your legal residence with legal ties, including your driving license, car registration, voter interest rate, professional practice licenses, and any other memberships in that area. If you have a permanent residence, you can file your resident tax return regardless of your tax residence location.
On the other hand, a tax home is where healthcare travelers derive most of their income. It’s their place of work, not where they live. As a requirement, traveling workers shouldn’t spend more than one year away from their tax home, or they risk not receiving reimbursements or deducting travel expenses.
Treat Your Tax Home with at Most Care
Another helpful tip is to treat your tax home appropriately. Make sure the Internal Revenue Service can see that you’re still a resident of your declared tax home. Do not change your driver’s license to any other state apart from where you’re assigned. Furthermore, make sure all your legal and financial interests, including your bank accounts in your tax home location, are always with you.
Have your mail sent to your tax home first while you’re on the road, then make arrangements for the post office to temporarily send it to your alternate location.
Take Care of the State Taxes
Apart from the Internal Revenue Service, healthcare travelers have to deal with several state tax agencies. Naturally, travel work involves working in multiple states during a singular tax year. Try to understand tax policies in every state you’re assigned because each state has its own tax policies from the IRS, and they’re always alert in protecting their tax revenues.
When it comes to state taxes, the number of states you work in does not matter because you’ll only file tax in your state of residence, even if you didn’t earn an income in that state. State tax authorities are always there to cross-reference other legal documents.
Also, note that whenever a travel healthcare professional works in multiple states, your home state will tax worldwide income and allow a credit for taxes paid to other states. For the state to grant you this credit, you’ll need to produce proof that you paid these taxes.
Make Sure You Pay Taxes in All Your Jurisdictions
Paying taxes in your required jurisdiction ensures that you don’t have any problems with government revenue collection agencies. As a healthcare provider, your job requires you to travel a lot, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not required to pay taxes. So, make that in every state you work in, you pay taxes to those other states you’ve worked in.
Try to keep track of what you owe and where by consulting an apportionment schedule. Apportionment schedule states provide nonresidents with their tax payment history. If you have several states where you earned income, try to itemize your deductions based on state taxes and what you earned there.
Consult Tax Experts
Last but not least, consult tax experts. For sure, tips for healthcare travelers aren’t complete without seeking advice from tax experts. Tax experts can advise you on various things, including nontaxable reimbursements, deducting travel expenses, and other deductions you may be eligible for as a traveling provider.
Bottom Line
It’s not always easy to predict how your career will look when you’re in travel healthcare. There are so many ups and downs, including tax navigation. However, the tax period should be your last worry when you’re facing other challenges. With the right healthcare expert, you can find yourself advancing in this career without worrying about the uncertainties that lie ahead.
Contact us today to help you jump-start your allied healthcare career. We’re committed to offering high levels of integrity and service. We’re mindful of tax season and ensure we train our staff on how to do the same.