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Back To The Future: A Time For Rethinking The Test For Resident Alien Status Under The Income Tax Laws, David Williams, Ii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

If the sole object of our tax law is certainty, then the quest for a bright-line, mechanical test would appear to be justified. Fairness, however, is an equally important objective. If fairness is sacrificed in our rush to formulate a bright-line test, then the law is not fully successful. The trade-off between certainty and fairness attains particular significance for non-United States citizens earning income in this country. Under United States tax laws, these individuals may be taxed as either resident aliens or nonresident aliens. This classification can be crucial because the resident alien is taxed on his worldwide income; the …