Year-end for travel therapists: what to gather before January

Before January, gather the records IRS Publication 463 describes for travel away from home, showing the amount, dates, place and business purpose of each expense, plus the dates and stipend lines of every contract that ran across October 1 and a log of the states you worked in. Publication 463 says records that support a deduction or an item of income are generally kept for 3 years from the date you file the return, and each state sets its own filing rules.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 25, 2026.

What records does Publication 463 say a traveler keeps?

The recordkeeping chapter of IRS Publication 463 starts from one rule: “You can’t deduct amounts that you approximate or estimate.” For travel, a record shows the cost of each separate expense for travel, lodging and meals; the “Dates you left and returned for each trip and number of days spent on business”; the destination; and the business purpose.

In the publication’s words, “Documentary evidence will ordinarily be considered adequate if it shows the amount, date, place, and essential character of the expense.” A hotel receipt is enough when it shows the hotel’s name and location, the dates you stayed, and separate amounts for charges such as lodging and meals. A log kept weekly counts as a timely kept record, and a record prepared on a computer is considered an adequate one.

One exception bears on stipends. Documentary evidence isn’t needed for meals or lodging while traveling away from home when you account to your employer under an accountable plan and a per diem allowance method that includes them is used. It isn’t needed either for an expense, other than lodging, under $75. The records that show a tax home are a separate set, listed on this site’s tax home checklist.

How long do you keep the records?

Publication 463: “Generally, this means you must keep records that support your deduction (or an item of income) for 3 years from the date you file the income tax return on which the deduction is claimed.”

The IRS page How long should I keep records? sets out the longer periods. It says to keep records for 6 years “if you do not report income that you should report, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return,” and indefinitely if you do not file a return. The same page says to keep copies of your filed tax returns, and to check whether an insurer or a creditor needs a record kept longer before you discard it.

What changes for a contract that ran across October 1?

Federal per diem rates run by the government’s fiscal year. Publication 463: “Per diem rates are listed by the federal government’s fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30.” A contract that started in FY2026 and ends in FY2027 can sit on two sets of rates. The new figures, each with its source, are on this site’s page on what changed on October 1, 2026.

The calendar year does not have to switch on that date. Publication 463: “The transition period covers the last 3 months of the calendar year, from the time that new rates are effective (generally, October 1) through December 31. During this period, you may generally change to the new rates or finish out the year with the rates you had been using.” For the high-low method it adds that you “must continue using the high-low method for the rest of the calendar year.” IRS Notice 2026-60 points to the same transition rules for the rest of 2026.

For each contract that crossed the date, the items to gather are its start and end dates, the county where you slept each month, the weekly stipend lines before and after October 1, and the pay stubs that show them. Where an agency changed a stipend line on or after that date, a note of when, and which fiscal year’s rates it was set against, keeps the record complete.

If you want a contract that ran across October 1 laid out line by line, with the fiscal year behind each stipend, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

What does a multi-state year ask you to gather?

This site’s multi-state filing page quotes each state’s rules; the method they share has three parts. A work state can tax what you earned there: the California Franchise Tax Board says “As a nonresident, you pay tax on your taxable income from California sources.” Your state of residence can tax it too, and New York’s tax department says a person who lives in one state but works in another “typically will receive a tax credit in their state of residence to eliminate double taxation of that income.” And some neighbouring states agree not to tax each other’s residents on wages; Pennsylvania names reciprocal agreements with Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

Residence is a state test, not your federal tax home. New York, for one, counts as a resident someone who keeps a permanent place of abode there for substantially all of the year and spends 184 days or more in the state.

So the material for a multi-state year is a log: each contract’s state and dates, the days you spent in each state, each W-2 you receive, and the pay stubs for each contract. How a home state figures its credit for tax paid elsewhere is that state’s own rule, and a tax professional who knows your home and work states reads the log against it.

What belongs in a year-end folder before January?

Frequently asked questions

Do I need meal receipts if my agency pays a per diem stipend?

Publication 463 says documentary evidence isn’t needed for meals or lodging while traveling away from home when you account to your employer under an accountable plan and a per diem allowance method that includes them is used.

How long should a travel therapist keep tax records?

Publication 463 says records that support a deduction or an item of income are generally kept for 3 years from the date you file the return. The IRS records page lists longer periods, such as 6 years when unreported income is more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return.

Does my stipend switch to the FY2027 rates on October 1?

Not necessarily. Publication 463’s transition period runs from October 1 through December 31, and during it the rates may generally change to the new ones or stay with the ones used earlier in the year. Ask which fiscal year’s rates each stipend line uses.

Sources

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