How GSA Per Diem Rates Set Your Travel Nurse Housing & Meal Stipend

Your agency's tax-free housing and M&IE stipends are capped by federal GSA per diem rates for your assignment city. Here's how to look yours up and check that an offer is legit.

FY2026 · StipendHQ editorial team · Educational information, not tax advice

When a recruiter quotes you a "tax-free weekly take," that number isn't pulled from thin air. It's bounded by a federal table published by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Understanding GSA per diem rates is the single best way to tell whether a travel nurse package is structured honestly, or whether it's hiding a red flag that could cost you in an audit.

This article is general educational information, not tax advice. Rates and rules change, and your individual situation matters. Always confirm current figures at the official sources and talk to a qualified tax professional before making decisions.

What GSA per diem actually is

GSA sets per diem rates that federal employees use for travel, and the IRS recognizes those same rates as the maximum tax-free reimbursement for a given location. Travel-staffing agencies lean on these rates as the ceiling when they structure your tax-free housing and meal money.

Per diem has two completely separate buckets:

• Lodging — a nightly ceiling for your room, tied to the actual nights you're on assignment.
• M&IE (Meals & Incidental Expenses) — a flat daily allowance for meals plus incidentals like tips and fees. M&IE does not require itemized meal receipts; it's a flat amount.

These are budgeted and applied independently. Most counties in the continental US (CONUS) — about 2,600 of them — use a single standard rate. For fiscal year 2026 (October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026), that standard rate is $110 lodging + $68 M&IE. Roughly 300+ higher-cost "non-standard" cities and counties get their own, usually higher, location-specific rates.

How to look up your assignment city's rate

The rate that matters is the one for the specific location of your assignment — not where you live, and not a national average. To find it:

1. Identify the city and county where the facility is located.
2. Look up the lodging and M&IE rate for that location and the month you'll be working (more on why the month matters below).
3. If the city isn't separately listed, the standard CONUS rate ($110 / $68 for FY2026) applies by default.

You can run this directly using our per diem city lookup, then plug the numbers into the stipend calculator to see the maximum tax-free weekly figure for your dates.

Why lodging rates can change by season

Some non-standard locations — think resort and tourist areas — have seasonal lodging rates that shift month to month. The same destination can carry a different lodging ceiling depending on when you're there. A summer beach assignment may have a much higher lodging cap than the same city in February.

Two things to remember:

• Lodging can vary by season.
• M&IE for a given location is generally a single tier and does not change seasonally.

Because of this, always look up the rate for your exact location and your exact travel month.

The first & last day 75% rule

On your travel days — the day you depart for the assignment and the day you return — only 75% of the full M&IE allowance applies. This is true regardless of what time you actually leave or arrive. It's a partial-day rule for M&IE only; it does not affect lodging.

Here's how the FY2026 M&IE tiers break down, including that first/last-day amount and the meal-by-meal split (incidentals are a fixed $5/day across every CONUS tier):

For a typical 13-week contract this is a rounding error, but it's the reason your first and last week's numbers may look slightly lighter than the middle weeks.

How to sanity-check an agency's offered stipend

Here's the practical workflow. Take the GSA rates for your assignment city and turn them into a monthly maximum:

• Max tax-free housing ≈ lodging ceiling × number of nights you're on assignment.
• Max tax-free M&IE ≈ M&IE rate × full days, with travel days at 75%.

Then compare those maximums to what the agency is offering:

• At or below the GSA max? The stipend can be paid tax-free — but only if you maintain a valid tax home (see below). Being under the ceiling is necessary, not sufficient.
• Above the GSA max? Any portion exceeding the GSA rate for the location is generally taxable. If a recruiter is quoting tax-free amounts above the published ceiling, ask questions.
• Suspiciously low taxable hourly rate? This is the big one. If the base wage is near minimum wage while the "tax-free" stipends are unusually large, that can be a sign of wage recharacterization, which the IRS prohibits. The IRS does not allow paying an artificially low taxable base to dodge payroll taxes. There's no fixed dollar floor — the IRS judges whether your taxable wage is reasonable for the work based on the facts and circumstances — but if your hourly rate is below what a nurse would realistically earn in that market, the IRS can recharacterize the excess stipend as taxable wages, with back taxes, interest, and penalties that you can be personally liable for. Your taxable wage should be reasonable, market-rate pay for the work. If a package looks like this, have a tax professional review it before you sign.

The catch: tax-free only works with a valid tax home

The GSA ceiling is just the dollar cap. Stipends are only actually tax-free if you maintain a valid tax home — a genuine permanent residence where you incur real, duplicated living expenses (rent or a mortgage you actually pay) while you're away on assignment. Staying somewhere free, or paying a token amount to a relative, generally does not count and can void the tax-free status of every stipend you receive.

A few myths and rules worth knowing:

• The "50-mile rule" is a myth. The IRS has no 50-mile threshold. The real test is the "sleep or rest" / away-from-home standard — your work must require you to be away from your tax home's general area substantially longer than an ordinary workday and to get sleep or rest to meet job demands. The 50-mile figure is usually an agency's internal housing-eligibility policy, often confused with IRS rules.
• The 12-month rule is real. A temporary assignment is one realistically expected to last one year or less. If you work — or come to realistically expect to work — in one general area for more than a year, that location becomes your new tax home, making stipends there taxable. The rule is prospective: stipends become taxable from the point your expectation changes, not retroactively.
• If you have no real home base, you're an "itinerant." An itinerant has no tax home, is never "away from home," and owes tax on all stipends and reimbursements.

This is exactly where a CPA or enrolled agent experienced in travel-healthcare taxes earns their fee. The GSA table tells you the ceiling; only your facts and circumstances determine whether you actually qualify — so confirm your own situation with a qualified professional rather than relying on rules of thumb.

Disclaimer

StipendHQ is an independent editorial resource — not a CPA firm, law firm, enrolled agent, or licensed tax/financial advisor — and using this site creates no professional-client relationship. This content is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice. Do not act or refrain from acting based on it, and StipendHQ is not liable for any actions taken or losses arising from reliance on this information. Tax situations are individual; consult a qualified tax professional (CPA or enrolled agent), ideally one experienced with travel-healthcare and multi-state taxes, before making decisions. Rates and rules change; GSA per diem rates are updated annually (federal fiscal year) and IRS rules can change, so FY2026 figures (effective October 1, 2025) may become outdated. This material addresses federal rules only; state and local tax treatment (including multi-state filing) may differ. Always verify current rates at gsa.gov/perdiem and rules in IRS Publication 463 and IRS Topic 511 — these official sources control.

Frequently asked questions

What GSA per diem rate applies to my travel nurse assignment?

The rate for the specific city and county where your facility is located, for the month you're working there. For FY2026, most standard CONUS locations use $110 lodging + $68 M&IE, while 300+ higher-cost areas have their own location-specific rates. If a city isn't separately listed, the standard rate applies by default. Confirm the current figure at gsa.gov/perdiem before relying on it.

Does being under the GSA rate guarantee my stipend is tax-free?

No. Staying at or below the GSA ceiling is necessary but not sufficient. Your stipend is only tax-free if you also maintain a valid tax home with real, duplicated living expenses, and the assignment is temporary (realistically one year or less in a given area). Without a valid tax home, all stipends become taxable income. Whether you qualify depends on your specific facts, so confirm with a qualified tax professional.

Why is only 75% of M&IE paid on my first and last day?

It's a federal partial-day rule. On your day of departure and day of return, only 75% of the full daily M&IE allowance applies, regardless of what time you travel. It affects M&IE only, not lodging. For the $68 standard FY2026 tier, that travel-day amount is $51.00.

Is there really a 50-mile rule for stipend eligibility?

Not in the tax code. The IRS uses a 'sleep or rest' / away-from-home test, not a mileage threshold. The 50-mile figure is typically an agency's internal housing-eligibility policy that gets incorrectly conflated with IRS rules. Don't rely on distance alone to assume your stipends are tax-free — talk to a tax professional about your situation.

What's a red flag that an agency's pay package is structured improperly?

A taxable hourly base near minimum wage paired with unusually large 'tax-free' stipends. The IRS prohibits this kind of wage recharacterization. There's no fixed dollar floor — the IRS judges reasonableness on the facts and circumstances — but if your base pay is below realistic market rate for the work, the IRS can reclassify the excess stipend as taxable wages, leaving you liable for back taxes, interest, and penalties. Have a tax professional review any package that looks like this.