Updated July 2026 · 9 min read
Part of the Travel Nurse Tax Hub — browse every related guide in one place.
Maryland looks like a middle-of-the-pack tax state until you read the second line of the return. On top of a moderate progressive state income tax, every Maryland county (and Baltimore City) charges its own mandatory local income tax — the "piggyback" tax — collected on the same return and added right onto your state bill. For a travel nurse, that local layer is the whole story: it can push your effective rate two or three points higher than the headline suggests, and non-residents are handled with a special substitute rate you need to understand before you sign.
Most states stop at one income tax. Maryland stacks two, and both are collected on the same return, which is why nurses who only look at the state rate underestimate their withholding. The state portion is progressive: low brackets at 2–4.75% on the first chunk of income, rising to 5% and eventually 5.75% at higher levels. A typical travel contract keeps you in the 4.75% state band for most of your wages.
The second layer is the county income tax, historically nicknamed the "piggyback" tax because it rides on top of the state return. Maryland residents pay it based on where they live, at rates set by each county — from around 2.25% in the lowest-tax counties to about 3.2% in the highest (several of the big population centers, including the Baltimore and Washington suburbs, sit near the top). Because it's collected together with the state tax, your Maryland bill is really state + county combined.
| Component | 2026 rate (approx.) | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| State income tax | 2% – 5.75% (most nurses ~4.75%) | Everyone with MD-source wages |
| County "piggyback" tax | ~2.25% – 3.2% | Maryland residents (by county of residence) |
| Special non-resident tax | ~2.25% (flat) | Non-residents, in place of a county rate |
| Combined effective (typical travel nurse) | ~7% (non-resident) | State ~4.75% + non-resident 2.25% |
Here's the part that trips people up. A travel nurse on assignment in Maryland is almost always a non-resident — your tax home and domicile are elsewhere. Non-residents don't belong to a Maryland county, so they can't be charged a county piggyback rate. Instead Maryland applies a special non-resident tax, a flat rate (2.25% for 2026) that substitutes for the local county tax. You pay it on your Maryland-source income in addition to the regular state tax.
So the math for a typical traveler is roughly the state rate (about 4.75% on most of your taxable wages) plus the 2.25% special non-resident tax — a combined effective rate in the neighborhood of 7%. That's meaningfully higher than the "5.75% top rate" you might see quoted for Maryland, and it's the number to plug in when you compare a Maryland contract against, say, a no-local-tax state like Virginia next door.
Maryland has reciprocity agreements with several neighbors: Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Reciprocity means that if you're a resident of one of those jurisdictions working in Maryland (or vice versa), your wages are taxed only by your home state, not by Maryland — you'd file a certificate with your employer to stop Maryland withholding. For a nurse who lives in Virginia or D.C. and picks up a Maryland assignment within commuting distance, this can eliminate the Maryland tax entirely.
Important nuance for travelers: reciprocity is about your state of residence, not about being a traveler. If your tax home is in Texas and you take a Maryland contract, reciprocity doesn't help you — you'll file the Maryland non-resident return and pay the state rate plus the special non-resident tax. Reciprocity only kicks in when you actually reside in one of the agreement states.
As a non-resident earning Maryland wages, you file Form 505, the Maryland Nonresident Income Tax Return (with Form 505NR to calculate the tax, including the special non-resident rate). You report your Maryland-source income, and you'll typically get credit on your home state return for taxes paid to Maryland, so you're not double-taxed on the same wages — though if your home state has no income tax, that credit does you no good and Maryland's tax is simply a cost of the assignment.
Your recruiter's payroll should withhold Maryland tax during the contract; check an early paystub to confirm the special non-resident piece is being taken, because getting it wrong means a surprise at filing. Keep every stub and your contract — the documentation matters if the day count ever gets scrutinized.
Everything that makes travel nursing tax-efficient still applies in Maryland: your non-taxable housing and meal stipends stay non-taxable only if you're genuinely duplicating expenses away from a real tax home. That means a legitimate permanent residence you maintain and return to, regular income earned there, and not staying in one assignment area so long that it becomes your new tax home (the rough one-year rule). Maryland's higher combined rate makes protecting those stipends even more valuable — the tax-free portion of your package is money the state never touches. For the full framework, see the travel nurse tax home guide and how it plays out state by state across the high-tax and no-tax ends of the map.
Related: Virginia travel nurse taxes · Pennsylvania travel nurse taxes · Travel nurse tax home guide · New York travel nurse taxes
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