Recruiters quote total weekly package. You need to know taxable wages, tax-free stipends, and what stays in your account after IRS rules and housing costs. Enter your contract details. Get the real number — not the marketing number.
This is why two contracts with identical weekly totals can leave you with $400+ difference per week. Stipend structure is everything — when you qualify for it.
Housing and meal stipends are only non-taxable when you are duplicating living expenses — maintaining a permanent residence while working away from it. The IRS does not accept "I call it home" as a tax home. If you fail the tax-home test, every dollar of stipend becomes taxable income — potentially triggering back taxes and penalties.
Every travel contract has three numbers that matter, and recruiters typically only emphasize the first one. The total weekly package is the marketing number — what gets quoted on a job board or in a recruiter pitch. The taxable hourly wage is what gets reported on your W-2 and is the basis for federal taxes, FICA, retirement contributions, and overtime calculations. The tax-free stipend portion covers housing and meal per diems and only stays tax-free if you maintain a qualifying IRS tax home.
The same $3,200/week total package can produce wildly different real take-home numbers depending on how it's structured. A contract with $1,200/week taxable wages plus $2,000/week stipends (assuming a qualifying tax home) leaves a typical nurse with substantially more in their account than a $3,200/week all-taxable structure. This is by design — IRS Publication 463 and Topic 511 carve out per-diem reimbursement specifically because the federal government wants to incentivize temporary work assignments.
The General Services Administration publishes per-diem rates for every county in the U.S., updated annually. These rates determine the maximum daily lodging and meal amounts that federal employees can receive tax-free. Travel nursing agencies use the same ceilings — anything paid above the GSA rate becomes taxable income. Verify the rate at gsa.gov for any assignment city before signing. Some high-cost cities (San Francisco, Boston, NYC) carry GSA rates 2–3× higher than the national average; rural assignments often carry the federal default.
To receive tax-free stipends, you must have a qualifying tax home — a permanent residence in another location where you pay rent or mortgage and regularly maintain living expenses. The IRS does not accept "my parents' address" as a tax home. The assignment must be temporary (typically expected to last less than 12 months), and you must have a business reason for being away from home. Failing any of these three tests converts your stipends into fully taxable income retroactively — a tax bill that can reach 30–40% of the stipend total.
If you don't have a qualifying tax home, the smarter move is to ask the agency to restructure your contract as all-taxable with a higher hourly rate. This is cleaner, IRS-compliant, and prevents back-tax surprises. Some agencies will do this; many won't because the stipend structure also reduces their FICA matching liability. Know your situation before you sign.
Run any contract through this calculator with your actual housing cost in the assignment city. The verdict shows your real net weekly take-home — the number you'll see in your account after taxes and rent. Compare two competing contracts side-by-side. The one with the higher net (regardless of which has the larger headline package) is the one to take. Pair this with the Cost of Living Calculator to validate the destination city's real purchasing power, and the Compact License Map to confirm you can start on day one without a separate endorsement application.
Educational tool. Not tax advice. Tax-home eligibility, GSA rates, and stipend deductibility require analysis of your specific facts and circumstances. Consult a CPA experienced with travel nurse tax law before relying on this calculator's output for IRS-relevant decisions. Last updated April 2026.