Compact License Question

Trauma Columnist · Feb 29, 2016

Moved to travel nursing

elkpark · Feb 29, 2016

I would check with your employer and the SC BON. AFAIK, your MO license lost its "compact privileges" as soon as you were no longer a permanent resident there, but there may be some grace period for applying for a SC license (you may be able to get a temporary/interim permit quickly). If it were me, I'd find out for sure before I worked another day. Things can only be worse if it turns out you are working without a license.

Best wishes!

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

The requirements to hold a compact license do not necessarily require maintenance of a residence (as tax home rules require). As such, I suspect you have some time while your former MO address is still valid - you did put in a forwarding address, correct? By all means clarify your status with the MO board first, and SC second (I believe SC has a walkthrough temp available). You haven't technically moved yet as I understand it.

An issue you didn't raise but is related is your tax home status. You need a valid tax home to receive tax-free housing, per diems, and travel pay. That benefit is worth about $10,000 net in the bank to most travelers. If having a tax home costs more than that, you are better off being itinerant (without a home). Itinerant status can be good way to go, but you will find that a lot of agencies will resist paying you that way, and even suggest fraudulently that you "just put your parent's address as your address" and everything will be fine. Maybe, but your recruiter will not be present at your audit.

Moving your home in the middle of an assignment (or even the more common changing your address as you become a traveler) is fraught with errors that can cost you big if you are audited. It is usually best to consult with a specialist such as Traveltax (they should do a phone consult for free but are best to retain to do your taxes anyway to avoid issues and to have representation if you do get audited) on something like this. I'm not an expert, but I have a good idea of what they will say: You need a bedroom that is exclusively yours and to which you can return at any time, and do return to regularly, and you will need to pay with proof of payment the fair market price of housing (for a house share in this case). While it doesn't affect you directly, your parents would also need to report the rental income on their tax returns to eliminate their own audit risk.

ebslawrl · Feb 29, 2016

I have a new tax home, I have a tax accountant, that's not related to my question. My question is related to licensure only. As I said, I physically moved 6 weeks ago but I can no longer keep my previous tax home due to issues with the landlord, that's out of my hands. So my question was more pertaining to specific licensure process with south Carolina, any leeway or grace period that anyone is aware of, those sort of things.

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

I don't think there is anything else we could tell you about licensure. No matter what we say, it is only prudent to check with the boards. If you physically moved out of state 6 weeks ago, then you have already been working without a valid license. I'd stop working immediately and fess up to the SC board.

You may think you have a new tax home, but I would check with a travel tax specialist. Your due diligence on licensure is a big fail, and so it might be for your "new" tax home. Very few local preparers understand the issues. I know a lot more than most local preparers, but shifting tax homes is a tricky proposition. You cannot just start using a new address of convenience and expect it to hold up in an audit. I'll shut up about it now, but hopefully you have been warned. After just a few years of travel, an audit could find back taxes, penalties, and interest of over $50,000 which is life changing for most taxpayers. Not worth the risk and it is not an uncommon occurrence for travelers.

ebslawrl · Feb 29, 2016

I'm not really sure what you're trying to achieve going off topic with traveling scare tactics but I do already have a travel tax accountant who specializes in travel nurses who file taxes pertaining to traveling, LOL. As I already said, I already have that part figured out so I'm not sure why you're fixated on that. And, as I already said, I physically traveled away from my home 6 weeks ago, but I maintained that home in a compact state until last night. So, no, I haven't been working without a valid license.

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

Then you have no issues at all. Using a compact license from a state you don't live in, and using your parent's address for a tax home where you have never lived. I think you have it nailed. What's the problem?

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

Sifting through your posts, this is what looks like what happened on the ground:

You stopped working at your staff job in MO 6 or 7 weeks weeks ago and took an immediate travel assignment in SC starting 6 weeks ago. You started using your parent's address in KS as your new self-stated "permanent residence", thus losing your compact license status 6 weeks ago (reverting to single state license at that point). Thus you have been working without a valid license for 6 weeks in another state. There will be no grace period since you didn't apply for SC licensure.

I think you need professional legal advice. If I was in your position, I would quit the travel assignment immediately and go back to a staff job in MO. That may protect your compact license status for the last 6 weeks and demonstrate you are still a MO resident without an intent to abandon your compact license. That could preempt your legal issue that could cause a license restriction (in every state). You will have to take your financial penalty lumps for terminating your contract (most travel contracts have missed hour penalties you will have to negotiate). Any financial hit is worth it to avoid restrictions on your ability to work. Once you are back in MO, you can start over with your plan to be a travel nurse.

You, and your travel tax professional, are wrong about the ability to instantly establish a tax home in a new state while immediately going to work in yet another state. As you said in your first post, it is your new "permanent residence" at best, which is hopefully what your tax guy said as well, not your tax home. If you go back to MO, there is no issue with any shift in your tax home as the preponderance of income will likely be from that state, or at least during the period before you attempt to establish a new and legitimate tax home (or permanent residence without a tax home) somewhere else. So the stipends received tax free will remain so.

That is of course the least of your problems here, the first thing to fix your professional issues. A tax home is relatively trivial year one of travel anyway as you can always report stipends at the end of the year on your tax return and pay the taxes due. It is still better to do it right day one. Many travelers start off just as you did, often with coaching by an agency, giving up their tax home and state residency and going straight to a travel assignment while using an address of convenience (most often parent's address). Perhaps most cases don't have consequences, but if a traveler gets audited, the results can be severe. Unknown to you, your agency may be being audited (there are a couple dozen under audit as I write this) which can lead to random audits of their travelers.

Some "forget" about compact license status too. If you search this forum, the Texas BON last year (perhaps the most ferocious state BON) after a nurse was reported to them for another (minor) issue, ruled that the nurse from a compact state had abandoned her residency there, and had that state cancel her license to practice entirely until her case was defended before the Texas BON. If we have heard about one such case here, there must be hundreds of cases we haven't heard about. Probably most are inadvertent and the nurse believes they are working legally. You don't have even that excuse. You need to fix this pronto.

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

By the way, I would recommend not working in TX. Besides a nasty BON, working conditions are typically poor with hostile management and docs (which leads to a high BON report rate), and high patient ratios. There is also a notorious (and legal) blacklist run by the major hospital association there (you can find long threads about it on Allnurses and articles on PanTravelers). The cost of private malpractice insurance is 8 times higher in TX than any other state for the same coverage. That alone tells you about risks of working there.

The chances of you actually having a license problem are relatively low of course, just higher than other states. But because I know about it, I have no desire to ever work there. I prefer to work in more nurse friendly states and just visit TX as a tourist.

chare · Feb 29, 2016

...And, as I already said, I physically traveled away from my home 6 weeks ago, but I maintained that home in a compact state until last night. So, no, I haven't been working without a valid license.

If you have already submitted your change of address to the MO BON, there really isn't much for you to do, other than apply to the SC BON for a temporary permit. If you have not yet done this, apply for licensure licensure with the SC BON using your SC address. When you do this, you will be able to work for either 30 or 90 days (varies state to state) on your MO license.

NedRN · Feb 29, 2016

Thanks for that. I missed it. If that is what happened, you are right.

I'm still not sure I have the full story. How can you physically move from an address and still claim to reside there? How can adverse action by a landlord cause you to lose that state residence status? How can you at the moment of adverse action claim a new state residence in a state you have not been in?