This is what I ended up using (for all those interested):
function override_tax_template($template){
// is a specific custom taxonomy being shown?
$taxonomy_array = array('tax1','tax2');
foreach ($taxonomy_array as $taxonomy_single) {
if ( is_tax($taxonomy_single) ) {
if(file_exists(trailingslashit(get_stylesheet_directory()) . 'tax-template-directory/taxonomy-'.$taxonomy_single.'.php')) {
$template = trailingslashit(get_stylesheet_directory()) . 'tax-template-directory/taxonomy-'.$taxonomy_single.'.php';
}
else {
$template = BASE_PLUGIN_DIR . 'includes/tax-template-directory/taxonomy-'.$taxonomy_single.'.php';
}
break;
}
}
return $template;
}
add_filter('template_include','override_tax_template');
I hooked into template_include
to check if there was a file in the active template called taxonomy-YOUR-TAXONOMY-NAME.php
and if not, loads the default from your plugin.