Life has changed dramatically with COVID, especially life as a traveler, healthcare or otherwise! We’ve had several calls recently from travelers asking: “Due to COVID, travel contracts are scarce, and I’ve been offered a permanent job. If I take a permanent job outside of my tax home, how will this affect my tax home?”
Taking a permanent job shifts the tax home to that new location unless you have more income from another location. The reality is that you have got to work, and travel contracts are scarce or being canceled, so what do you do? You can take the permanent job for however long you need to; however, your tax home will shift.
If you are planning to go back to traveling after all this blows over, and want to use your previous tax home, then you will mostly likely need to reestablish it. How do you reestablish that tax home? By earning significant income in the area that is fully taxed. You might ask, what is “significant income”? Well, considering that the traveling life is divided into 3-month intervals and one could work 4 assignments a year. A starting point is 2-3 months of income in that new location.
