FY2027 GSA Per Diem Rates for Dothan, Alabama
These are the federal per diem rates for Dothan for fiscal year 2027 (1 October 2026 – 30 September 2027). They set the ceiling on how much of your pay package an agency can pay as a tax-free housing and meal stipend rather than as taxable wages.
GSA sets this rate for the Standard Rate locality (Applies for all locations without specified rates County), which covers Dothan and nearby areas. A locality usually spans more than the city it is named after.
Lodging (all year)
$113/night
Weekly housing ceiling: $791/week
Meals & Incidentals (M&IE)
$68/day
Weekly meals ceiling: $476/week Already includes incidentals — nothing to add on top.
Combined ceiling
$1,267/week
The most a compliant stipend package can total in Dothan, for a traveller with a qualifying tax home.
No seasonal variation in Dothan
GSA holds Dothan at $113/night for all twelve months of FY2027, so the ceiling is the same whenever your contract runs. That is not true everywhere — 63 of the localities we track move by month, some by several hundred dollars a week. If you are comparing this assignment against one in another city, check that city's schedule rather than assuming its rate is flat too.
Compare localities in the GSA Rate Explorer →How travel nurse stipends use these caps
Agencies normally split a package into a lower taxable hourly rate plus tax-free stipends for housing and meals. The IRS expects those stipends to stay within the per diem limits for the assignment location. Pay above the ceiling does not become illegal — it becomes taxable wages, and it is your return that has to account for it.
In Dothan the ceiling is $791/week for housing , plus $476/week for meals and incidentals.
Two things travellers most often get wrong about this number. First, it is a maximum, not a target — a package paying well under it is common and not necessarily a bad offer, but a package paying over it has a tax consequence nobody may have mentioned. Second, the stipend is only tax-free if you genuinely maintain a tax home you are duplicating expenses for; without one, the whole stipend is taxable regardless of what GSA publishes.
One detail that catches people out: the first and last day of travel are reimbursed at 75% of the M&IE rate, not the full day rate. On a 13-week contract that is a rounding error; on a string of short assignments it adds up.
Find housing for this stipend
See whether the stipend actually covers furnished housing in Dothan. If it does not, you are subsidising the assignment out of pocket.
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Where these numbers come from
Published by the U.S. General Services Administration for fiscal year 2027, retrieved 2026-09-28. Rates change each 1 October. Always confirm against GSA.gov. This page is an educational tool, not tax advice — see our methodology.